The Blatant Disregard Of A Pokémon Trainer
by MarLuna
Summary: Everyone calls me a danger magnet—but it's not my fault. I try to stay out of trouble all the time, and yet it still manages to find and catch me. It doesn't help that my sister is somehow related to the Rocket mayhem that's been whirling around, nor does it help that my closest friend started to act suspicious. With ties made, others broken, and old scars struck, who am I anymore?
1. 001: Beginnings

_Hello everyone~_

_I finally got to reworking on this~_

_I didn't realize that having new and tougher classes would actually take a big part of my life. And being a senior that's on the brink of graduating. _

_And deviantArt! Holy crap. I'm on that site all the time, improving my drawing skills. You have no idea how I love it on there. Even if I lose long hours of life that I desperately need._

_Anywho, instead of going with the prologue and chapters and whatnot, I'll just number them down like so. It's so much more fun._

_I've also added a whole lot more character development and details, so that it becomes less confusing and less like I'm making everything up on the spot. I hate that from writers, so I'm applying that change to myself._

_ALSO! Other than starters, the Pokemon caught MIGHT change! Just a heads up in case!_

_Enjoy~_

* * *

_**The Blatant Disregard of a Pokémon Trainer v2**_

* * *

_Mother a contest Champion. Father a famous photographer. What will she do to get away from all the criticizing and all the skepticism? Join the rebellion! Become a Pokémon trainer._

I try to stay out of trouble all the time. But it's not my fault! My mouth can't shut up to save its life! It's almost like a bad habit; one that won't go away no matter what I try to do. I feel really bad for my friends, since they have to put up with me as I go on my journey to become a Pokémon Trainer.

* * *

_**001. Beginnings.**_

* * *

Hell began the second I decided to become a Pokémon trainer.

"Happy birthday, Maia!" My big sister called from Johto on my special tenth birthday. This age was the most important to everyone. It's an even bigger hallmark than turning sixteen. Being ten was the moment that a child chose their life; with or without Pokémon. I didn't even consider the chances and instantly said yes to them. Who wouldn't? Pokémon are the best!

"Thanks Alyson!" I set my phone in the crook of my neck as I shut the door to my bedroom behind me. I used my free hands to open my drawers and pull out some clothes. "What are you up to lately?"

I felt her hesitation from where I was, but I was too busy thinking over what to pack to really concentrate on it. "Don't tell mom and dad okay?"

"Sure," I answered halfheartedly, dropping to my stomach so that I could look under my bed. "Do you know where I put my bag? I can't find it! Actually, I think I lost it when you left."

"Uhh… the blue one with the white flowers?"

"No," Said bag was too small and got dirty way too easily. "My dark gray messenger bag with the purple pattern."

"Are you sure you even want to take a messenger bag?" She was like a second mom, getting too worried too easily. "Everything might not fit in it…"

"I'll be fine! No worries!" I patted the space underneath my bed but still couldn't find anything of use. "Now where is it?"

"I hid it in my closet," She giggled with mirth, "I saw it last summer and really liked it so I hid it from you."

I tsked and got back to my feet, kicking one of my drawers closed so that I could pass. "But it's _my_ bag!"

"That's not the point!" She quickly changed the subject before I could keep accusing her, going back to her "secret" of sorts, "I really wanted to tell you sooner but you were in that faze where you tattletaled to mom about everything I did!"

"I wasn't!" I instantly denied, faking hurt. I got a quick flashback of the time I told mom that Alyson was running away from home and quickly backtracked. "…well, maybe a little."

She laughed at me while I made my way to her old room. It was very girly and pink and cute that it nearly made me sick every time I looked at something.

I made my way to the closet doors, "So what's the big news?"

"I've become a Pokémon breeder!"

I blinked in surprise. I've never heard of the term breeder before. "What's that?"

"It means that I raise Pokémon and find them suitable mates so to improve their moveset and stats and things like that. It's more complicated and stuff, but it's what I'm learning right now."

I pushed her clothes aside and peered deeper inside. "So, like, you're helping make stronger Pokémon? Like the day care?"

If she were with me right now, I'd bet she'd ruffle my hair. "Something like that, kiddo."

"I'm not a kid anymore!" I sang back, plucking my bag from behind her laundry basket. It must've fallen in there when I was flipping through her shirts this morning. (I had nothing good to wear! I swear! Besides, I didn't even take anything in the end…) "Found it!"

"Good," She said, "Did you consider what path you were going to take?"

"Path?" I repeated like a clueless Buneary, "What do you mean?"

"I mean, like," I could tell she was waving her hands around as she tried to think up words. "What you're doing to do when you go on your journey. I mean, knowing you, you're obviously going to become a trainer, duh. But what else? Like, are you just going to travelling around until you find something to do? Like, your passion?"

"I dunno, Alyson…" I mumbled dropping onto my bed with a sigh, kicking the pile of clothes off so that I was no longer awkwardly lying on them, "Probably. I mean, I'm still too young to think about the future!"

"Yes," She murmured, "But I want you to be sure of yourself when you leave school… What if being a trainer isn't your thing?"

"Of course it's my thing!" I quickly dismissed her idea with pump of my fist, "I was born to be a trainer!"

She giggled, "You sure are confident in yourself!"

"Of course!" I chirped back, letting my fist drop back to my side, "I want to be the very best! Like no one ever was! To catch them is my real test! To train them is my cause!"

Now she burst out laughing, "You're quoting that song, aren't you?"

"Yup!" I twirled a lock of my messy brown hair to distract myself, "I was always wondering… where do you live right now? Maybe I could come and visit you!"

"Johto, duh"

I rolled my eyes, "I know that, but which city or town or whatever?"

"Goldenrod!"

I gasped and would've swatted her if she was next to me, "Get out! The big city? Seriously?"

"Yes seriously!" She squealed back, "At first I wasn't so sure, but then the business was so good and it felt like home and I can't imagine anywhere else!"

I sighed, feeling a pang of jealousy, "I'm _so_ going to visit you!"

"I hope so!" She giggled.

There was an awkward pause of silence. I chose to ignore it and rolled off my bed, gathering the clothes I dropped back onto my bed. "What should I wear?" I asked myself, tossing a few sweatshirts aside, "I'm leaving tomorrow with my Pokémon. I've gotta wear something super cool."

"You're exaggerating!" Alyson laughed yet rolled her eyes at me through the phone. It's a wonder how I knew her so well—I always hated her perfectness when she used to live here.

"Am not!" I whined back, "I want the image of my badass self leaving the city to be engraved into everyone's mind! That way, when I come back with my super cool team of 6 sweet and badass Pokémon, everyone will think I'm even more badass-like!"

Silence greeted me. I knew she was in awe.

"Okay," she finally responded after a while. "So you just want to seem badass?"

I beamed at my bag, "Yes! I knew you'd get it!"

"That's a stupid reason."

I was taken aback. I thought she'd understand! "W-what? No it's not!"

She seemed grim now, which was odd hearing that from her. "Your recklessness will end up hurting yourself and your team in the future."

"N-no! Even if I don't know what you mean, it won't! I'll take good care of my team! We'll be the best and no one will ever get hurt!" I was getting desperate for her to understand. My soon-to-be Pokémon and I will be fine! I know she worries about me and how brainless I can be at times, but I'm sure it won't affect our journey! I'll totally control myself from doing stupid things!

"That's the thing," Her voice broke in that weird way that I could tell that she was sad and on the brink of tears. Oh crud. Did I say something wrong? "You don't know! You won't know until it's too late! You'll lose them and no matter what you do, you can never have them back! It's all your fault! One mistake and they're gone forever!" She was hiccupping and even though I couldn't see her crying, I knew that she was. She voice was bordering hysterics and it was getting muffled, getting harder to understand as she progressed. It didn't make sense, lose them? Lose my Pokémon? No way! That'll never happen!

I felt that pang of guilt for making my sister cry. "Hey, Alyson, don't cry! That won't happen to me, I promise, okay? I'll even call you every day if I have to, if that helps! J-just don't cry—"

"Excuse me, I'd appreciate if you called some other time." A sudden manly voice, which in no way resembled my dad's, rumbled through the phone. "Goodbye."

WHO IN THE WORLD DARES INTERUPT SISTER BONDING TIME? "Wait a seco—"

He hung up on me.

ON ME.

OH NO HE _DIDN'T_!

HOW _DARE_ HE?

He manhandled my sis' phone! No one dares touch my sister's stuff unless they have a death wish! Oh no! This is bad! My sister has been kidnapped! That's why she called! Not only for my birthday, but to call for help from her sister! She probably felt so guilty that she didn't want mom and dad to know, so she knew I'd understand and help her out before it was too late!

DON'T WORRY SISTA, I'MA COMIN'!


	2. 002: Misunderstandings

_Now that I had time away from home, I got to finding a legit plot that worked for this story._

_So, expect upcoming awesome things in the future chapters and a lot more sense to go with it!_

_I changed Maia's Pokemon team, so prepared to be AMAZED, and I'm also trying to be true to the first few chapters of the first version of TBDPT by still interpreting Roy's hat in and Ivey's constant blabbering and annoyingness. _

_Enough of my own blabbering and enjoy!_

* * *

_**The Blatant Disregard of a Pokémon Trainer v2**_

* * *

_Mother a contest champion. Father a famous photographer. What will she do to get away from all the criticizing and all the skepticism? Join the rebellion! Become a Pokémon trainer._

I try to stay out of trouble all the time. But it's not my fault! My mouth can't shut up to save its life! It's almost like a bad habit, one that won't go away no matter what I try to do. I feel really bad for my friends, since they have to put up with me as I go on my journey to become a Pokémon Master.

* * *

**_002. Misunderstandings._**

* * *

Something you should know about me, I get carried away way too easily.

"That was my boyfriend." Alyson called back the next day, already feeling better. "He's protective so the second something happens to me, he goes all evil meanie on everyone else."

"You're kidding." I hissed in the phone, feeling myself slowly slipping into hysterics this time.

"Nope! He's a real sweetie!" I heard her giggling before saying something to someone behind her. She laughed a bit louder before speaking back to me, "I hope he didn't freak you out."

"Freak me out?" I scoffed with exaggeration, "As if! I only thought you were kidnapped, ran over to Professor Oak's, demanded I get my Pokémon hours early, packed my bag to the max, and paced my room a thousand times, thinking of ways to save you tomorrow—well today now—and barely got any sleep."

She laughed at me. "You're so silly! I wouldn't get kidnapped!"

I scowled into the phone. "I don't know, your boyfriend sure sounded evil."

"Yeah, well, he is not." Was her oh-so great response. "But who cares! Tell me about your new Pokémon!"

My frown instantly turned upside down, "Here! I'll pass you to him!"

"YAY!" She practically yelled in my ear. "Gimme gimme gimme gimme!"

"Hold on…" I took the phone away from my ear (mostly to ignore her pestering) and peered around the room, "Spyk? Where are you?"

"Pi?" A tiny little yellow face appeared near my foot, from under my bed. He latched onto my pant leg and scampered up to my arm, tilting his head in confusion when he stopped on my elbow. "Pi?"

"My sister wants to speak with you…" I told him, extending the phone to his ear. He gave another peep of confusion, only to flinch in surprise when my sister started blabbering excitedly at him in a way that sounded like a huge jumble of words. He shrieked and swatted at the phone like it was going to eat him if he didn't.

I quickly took the phone back. "Shuddup you! Clearly you can't make sense enough for my pichu to understand you…"

Her senseless chattering instantly stopped. "A pichu?"

Said Pokémon started sniffing my hair for some reason. "Um, yeah?"

"How odd…" I heard the flipping of pages. She must be looking in one of her books. "I didn't think you could catch pichus in Kanto. Do you think Professor Oak bred some pikachus?"

I inched my hair away from my Pokémon. He was sniffing it _way_ too much. "How would I know? I barely understand what goes on in his head, let alone the stuff he does in his spare time…"

Spyk took a bite of my hair.

"Hey! Let go!" I hissed, whipping my hair back and forth to free it. The yellow mouse squeaked in surprise and ended up falling back on my bed with a small bounce (which he giggled at in amusement). I scowled down at him. "Don't eat my hair!"

"Pii!" He squealed, completely ignoring me as he started to bounce on my bed. I rolled my eyes and dropped into my desk chair in exasperation.

"You sound like such a mom." Alyson sneered in my ear. "Welcome to the club."

"Thaankss…" I mumbled somewhat sarcastically, gluing my eyes to my Pokémon to make sure he won't suddenly feel like knocking over one of my bamboo plants. "I feel so better."

"When are you leaving home?" She chirped, changing the subject to something lighter. She was good at that, no matter the time and area.

"Um, after lunch, I think." I glanced to the top of my face as if I was digging into my own brain. "Whenever I can sneak away."

"Mom and dad don't know you're leaving?"

"They do." I spun around in my chair and kicked my bag distractedly. "But you know them—they'll probably change their minds at the last second and keep me locked in here forever."

"They don't—" She started to argue, but her voice stopped short. "Oh right, they tried to keep me stuck at home too. Duh! I almost forgot why I never come to visit you guys anymore!"

"Pretty much." I dropped my face on my desk, ignoring my uncomfortable nose, as I groaned in displeasure. "I don't know, shouldn't I feel happy that I'm leaving?"

"You're probably feeling anxious." She dismissed me. "Make sure to bring your Pokégear, okay?"

"Yeah, yeah," I looked back at my bag, "It's in my bag."

"Good." I could hear her grinning. "I'm gonna call you every day!"

"Jeez, it's as if _you're_ my mom—" A really loud crashing noise exploded behind me and gave me a start. "What was _that_?!" I whirled around in my chair and noticed the very sheepish Spyk ducking to hide behind my feet. I glanced down at him. "What did you do?"

"Piiichhuuu…" He mumbled, eyes locked on something near the window. With a sigh, I got up and looked over, spotting my newly-destroyed alarm clock standing there, well, destroyed.

MY ALARM CLOCK? HOW DARE HE DESTROY MY—

Wait.

I'm leaving today.

I don't even need it anymore!

"It's okay!" I beamed at Spyk, scaring him since it's probably the first genuine (sort of) smile I gave him ever since I met him. That's not my fault though—he wouldn't stop shocking me every time I tried to hug him! "I won't need it ever again!"

"What?" Alyson asked in confusion on the other side of the phone, clearly not following.

"He destroyed my alarm clock," I flopped on my bed but kept an eye on my Pokémon.

"Aww! How cute!" She cooed, disregarding the fact that he was probably going to destroy my room within a few minutes.

"I guess so…" I mumbled, sticking out my foot to catch Spyk before he fell. "He's such a kid. He keeps running everywhere and making a mess."

Alyson just had to point out the obvious, "He _is_ a baby Pokémon."

"Shut up you. I'm trying to complain here."

"Oh boo-hoo. Getting a Pokémon is such a pain."

"Finally! Someone understands!" I wailed, flailing my arms and accidently smacking something. With a glance at what it was, I didn't really feel bad for hitting Spyk, more curious than anything. "When did you get there?"

"Pi!" He exclaimed in disdain, sending me a shock so that I'd learn my lesson. I yelped as I sizzled, getting all frazzled afterwards. I still wasn't used to the attacks. Were Pokémon even allowed to attack their own trainers? Isn't it the same as trainers not attacking their Pokémon?

"Sorry about that—" I lifted my phone back to my ear, expecting Alyson to be chattering in my ear and yelling at me for being able to hear me being cooked alive. But no. There was dead silence. I double checked before sending Spyk an evil look, "You killed my phone!"

"Chu?" He dared feign innocence and tilted his head as if he were an angel.

"Yes you!"

He shrugged.

That infuriated me more.

"Look here you!" I tossed the now-ruined-phone-forever over my shoulder and pointed at him. "If this is going to work, there's going to be rules, okay?" I don't know why I was asking permission, seeing as I was going to enforce them. "Rule number one: no electrocuting me or any of my things! In return, I won't squish you, smack you, hurt you, or harm you in any way other than Pokémon battles. Got it?" I got a nod. Growing a Pokémon team was totally going to be easier than raising a pet. Totally. "Rule number two: no causing trouble for anyone! And I mean using your awesome Pokémon skills by pranking other people—_don't look at me like that, I know you're the one who shorted the hairdryer and almost gave my mom an anxiety attack." _Contrary to my words though, I accepted a high-five for that little event. "And in return, I guess I won't cause any trouble for you if you want to train or hang out or do stuff with your fellow Poké-friends." He lit up at the idea of hanging with other Pokémon. Aww, if only he knew that his only friends were going to be his fellow teammates! "Rule number three: behave and do as I say! I do not want to be humiliated or even lose a battle because you think it'd be funny to see me freak out! No doing that, got it? In return I'll…" Shoot, what other things did Pokémon like? "…hug you forever?" I got a glare. That was a no. "Uh… actually take care of you and apply first aid and run to the Pokémon center like the Devil's on my heels whenever you get hurt?" He didn't look convinced, but nodded nonetheless. Whew, that's taken care of. Now, what else did parents worry about when they had unruly children? 'Clean your room!' 'Don't sneak out!' 'Eat your vegetables!' 'Stop walking all over your neighbor's plants!' 'Don't use the hose as a skipping rope!' 'Don't poke me ever again!' I was running out of ideas. "I'll come up with more later, but for now, those are the basics!" I'll probably need to write them down too, while I was at it.

"Oh! Also!" I realized at the right moment, right after I had everything jotted down in a random notepad that I would tuck into one of the pockets of my bag afterwards. "Failure to follow these rules would mean some form of punishment and confinement to your Pokéball!" I quickly whirled around and made sure Spyk understood this by giving him a stern stare. Though there wasn't much of a point, seeing as he had somehow fallen asleep in my moment of contemplation and writing.

Besides, there wasn't much of a need for these rules. It's more for control over him. As long as he didn't misbehave too much, it was all good. And I can say that because sometimes I'll need to misbehave too, and then I'll need him as my accomplice. But he doesn't need to know that right now.

Well, that's what I thought, until two hours later when we finally got to leaving the house (I ended up sneaking out of the house after all, since mom changed her mind once again) and into the forest.

Clearly, my rules weren't detailed enough.

"Spyk, NO!" It took five minutes of sprinting after him to finally snatch him away from the pidgey he's been chasing. I flicked his nose and he scrunched up his face in distaste. "I told you no!" He started growling at me, ready to unleash another thundershock to get me to let go, but I quickly flicked his nose again to stop him. "Do you want to go back to your Pokéball?" I inched my intruding finger closer to his face and he flattened his ears against his head and whined. I wiggled him a little and he stayed quiet, opting to stay submissive. "Are you going to behave?" I lifted him to my face and he quickly looked away. Eh, it was good enough.

I gently released my grip on him and he scurried over to my shoulder, choosing to chill there. Probably just to kiss up, but I didn't mind.

It was the perfect time to work on a plan. I had time, since I was in a giant forest and the sun was slowly lowering for the night. I stopped to set up camp between these two close normal looking logs and pulled out my Kanto map. Spyk was instantly curled up on top of my bag the second I dropped it to the ground. He was so weird. Anywho, I, although born in Kanto, had a huge thing about the region of Hoenn. It had way more cities than any other region, plus it had Slateport, the perfect place for an epic vacation, the desert on Route 111, for epic sandy discoveries, Meteor Falls, for epic scientific researchness, and all those epic must-see sightseeing locations. But my main reason, the why to my whole adventure, is because of the region's Pacifidlog Town, a town rumored to float on top of a corsola colony and rumored to be near Mirage Island.

Two things I must see and find for myself.

"Alright…" I stared at the map for a long while. "We're here," I pointed to some flora just above Viridian, my home town, "in Viridian Forest. We need to get all the way over here," I moved my finger over to Vermilion, "If we want to get on a ship and move to Hoenn. That's bound to take at least…." I counted half a week through the forest and an actual full week of getting lost in the mountain, plus another half week of trekking down from Cerulean to Vermilion. "…two weeks. Aw man! That's gonna take forever!"

"Pichu…" Spyk tapped at the mountain area with what sounded like a moan. I had to agree with him.

"I know, it sucks that we have to go through Mt. Moon. If you find another way around it, let me know. I'll gladly go for it."

Rock and ground types were a no go in our case. With the strong defense they were bound to have, it's a wise choice on our part that we have _running away safely _down perfectly. Besides, who would feel safe entering a cave filled with trainers and Pokémon ready to crush you at any second? I do not want to be tripped a few thousand times because the geodudes still think it's funny to see travelers fall flat on their faces. Haven't they gotten tired of it yet? If only Spyk were a water Pokémon. We'd have sunken the place down already, like the two inch strawberry Sunday I want but can't have because it's too delicious for someone like me. I wish I were delicious.

"Why Hoenn?" A random voice decided to spook us on the spot.

I whirled around and spotted a girl that looked exactly like a Barbie, blond hair and all. She was looking unblinkingly back at me, blue eyes wide and bordering insane. "Excuse me?"

"I was eavesdropping." She shrugged like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Why do you want to go to Hoenn?"

"None of your business," I whirled back to my business and made sure to give her the cold shoulder.

"But I wanna know!" She whined, suddenly popping up out of nowhere and into my face. Literally. I flinched and scooted away. She came closer and took a seat next to my bag. "Tell me!"

When Spyk didn't do anything about her being too close, I quickly yanked back my messenger bag back on and started leaving my beautiful camping spot. My pichu hissed in surprise but nevertheless hung on faithfully as I nearly sprinted from the area, waiting for me to stop moving before he would get comfy.

Now, I wasn't antisocial or anything, but this girl was way too in my face. To make it worse, she seemed to be older than I was by a few years, and that was saying something.

"Please!" She yelled at my retreating back, almost pleading. "I'm lost and I just need someone to talk to!"

_Don't look. Don't look. Don't look! _I chastised myself, knowing that if I turned around to look at her, I'd feel guilty enough and actually sit right back down and answer all her questions. So I made a run for it. There was no need to dawdle too much in this forest anyway. I wanted out and this chick wasn't going to keep me here any longer than I had to. I was just simply going to get out of here sooner than I had planned.

"Yo trainer!" She changed her attempt drastically, pulling off being rude. "You met my eye! Let's battle!"

I kept on going, pulling Spyk into my arms. "No way!"

I heard her get up and stomp her foot. "It's a rule! You have to!"

Psh. Who actually cares about rules? "I'm a rule breaker!"

"N-not fair!" She shrieked loudly and kept stomping her foot as if it could summon up an earthquake and take me down in an instant. Fortunately for me, she wasn't a graveler. "We're supposed to battle!"

"Don't think so!" The second I was hidden by some foliage, I ran for it, nearly tripping and ruining some couple's picnic and eating a mouthful of dirt. "Sorry!" They only looked shocked that there was actually someone else in this forest besides them. I spotted the male mouth the word 'battle' excitedly and quickly hightailed it around a corner and into a large bush plant before he too could urge me for a battle. I had to be safe here. I did not want to battle some insane trainers who take it to some weird extreme, probably thinking that it could be the cure for cancer. I glanced down in my arms, glad to see that Spyk had stayed there during the whole thing and was still safe. I did not want that weird little girl to take him hostage, that's for sure. Of course, I hadn't realized that I wasn't alone yet. But this was actually a good thing. If it weren't for the fact that I had jumped into this particular bush and met this person, I would've never been pushed as far as I thought I would.

"Hi there!"

"SON OF A—" Surprised out of my wits, I whipped my hand out and slapped whoever it was that thought surprising me was a good thing.

"Ouch!" The poor boy grabbed his cheek and pouted at me. Spyk giggled in amusement in my arms. "I just wanted to say hi!"

"Not if you keep sneaking up on people," Though, if I look at him now, he was actually right next to me in the bush, so maybe I was the one in his hiding spot? Whichever. Girl pride came first. "Where the heck did you come from?"

"Well, my mom wasn't really in the mood for marrying someone and she actually thought that she would live alone and have a bazillion skittys—" He took the question quite a bit too seriously, if I do say so myself. I had to stop him, quick. I don't think I want to know some random stranger's life story.

"Dude, stop. Not what I meant."

For some odd reason, he looked pretty surprised. "Oh. Sorry."

"It's all good." I looked him over. He didn't seem much like the awkward type, but like an actual trainer (unlike me) with a neat jacket, some sleek pants, a solid backpack, and cool hat. My eyes locked on the red and white accessory. It looked good and comfy, plus it was eye catching and had the little Pokéball insignia that I always wanted on my clothes. "Nice hat. Where'd you get it?"

He pulled if off his head, revealing cute short red hair that went well with the shape of his face. It also gave some contrast to his dark eyes, making them stand out a lot more. "This?" He waved it around like it was nothing. "You can have it if you want."

I waved him away, "No way. That's your hat."

"No really…" He leaned closer and peered at my face. I flushed and backed away, totally not used to having someone so cute so close to my face. He caught my brown eyes with his and held them in place, gazing into me as if I held the answer to something. I looked back nervously, trying not to seem too bold. I was no good with boys. I was always became so nervous and too quiet, which, in turn, made them worry that I had something planned for them up my sleeve. And I didn't! I was just… shy. Yeah, that's it. Shy. But with this odd boy whom I didn't know it was different. There was something about him, maybe his posture or his attitude or his look, that seemed familiar, as if I've known him forever yet I knew I hadn't. I didn't have many friends as a child, scaring them away when all I could think about was create trouble. The parents refused for them to play with me, leaving me a loner the rest of my years, even as the children grew a mind of their own.

"Roy! Where are you?" A female voice echoed some distance away and he instantly spun away in surprise. I released the breath I was holding and ignored the small feeling of disappointment in my chest, watching him shuffle out of our hiding spot and dust off his pants. The back of his head gave me a flash of something and I quickly followed him out, grabbing onto his sleeve so that he wouldn't leave right away.

"Hmm?" He turned to me in confusion but then an idea popped into his head before I could say something, "Oh! Right!" And then he dropped his baseball cap onto the crown of my head and promptly fled the area. "See you later!"

My eyes widened in surprise and I gripped the item, staying silent as I inwardly yelled at him to run right back and take it back into his possession. That was so not planned. He was supposed to tell me why he felt so familiar to me, not give me his awesome hat! Though his hat is really awesome and comfy… no! Wait! I'm not supposed to have someone else's hat! I'll have to hold onto it until I can see him again… though that would be hard considering that I'd be traveling all the way to Hoenn and away from here.

"Pi-pi!" Spyk squealed, bouncing up from my arms to sit on my new hat and hug it. I found this super odd, since he hadn't been really attached to anything since I met him, only sitting on my bag, nothing more. He was behaving differently than normal, even sliding inside the hat to wear it himself on top of my head. The second he chose to run off with it, I was instantly on his tail, following him down a few random trails to catch him. It was hard too! I had two feet and he was well equipped with his four paws, but I had a bit of an advantage over him: the baseball cap was way too big for him and easily blocked his sight of the world. When he finally ran straight into a tree and knocked himself out cold, I laughed and put back on the hat, calling him into his Pokéball for a rest (not that he needed it).

"Oh!" The ever feared, high-pitched voice of Barbie Girl suddenly chirped _right next to me_. "I finally found you!"

I resisted the urge to slam my face against the tree knock myself into the world of the dreaming too.

I should've just stayed in the bush.


	3. 003: A Step Forward

_Chapter three up! Thank you for those who reviewed! It really got me in the mood to update sooner and to write more! _

_So if you really want me to update sooner, R&R! :D_

_More things planned! Samantha will pop up sooner, but Calvin and Blake will only appear later, when she switches regions. I hope no one minds~_

_Enjoy!_

* * *

_**The Blatant Disregard of a Pokémon Trainer v2**_

* * *

_Mother a contest champion. Father a famous photographer. What will she do to get away from all the criticizing and all the skepticism? Join the rebellion! Become a Pokémon trainer._

I try to stay out of trouble all the time. But it's not my fault! My mouth can't shut up to save its life! It's almost like a bad habit, one that won't go away no matter what I try to do. I feel really bad for my friends, since they have to put up with me as I go on my journey to become a Pokémon Master.

* * *

**_003. A step forward._**

* * *

"And then he stopped doing that because she was all like—" Madame Barbie wouldn't stop blabbering. I swear she's been going on nonstop ever since I allowed her to travel with me a few days ago, when she actually seemed decent. She hadn't taken a breath yet either. You know the expression _don't judge a book by its cover_? Well this was one book where judging would've been really necessary. I should've just ran for my life the second I saw that she had found me again. I can't believe I've let her guilt me into finding the exit of this place together. And, of course, now I have to somehow live through her stories as we walk and walk, which really sucked. I swear that if I hear another story about this dude and some random gossip about her school that made absolutely no sense, my head was going to explode.

"Didn't we just walk by this tree?" I asked, stopping short and squinting at said leafy object.

"No, we didn't," The girl ignored me completely and kept on walking, linking her arm in mine so that I kept moving with her. "So Cathy was whining about how Kelly wanted her man but even he admitted that—"

I bet that between listening to this and listening to a snorlax snore, the snorlax would be a whole lot more soothing to the ears.

"—she was totally annoying. But then he introduced her to his friend, Josh, who thought that she needed to chill—"

Wait. Maybe I can play with her a little. "I thought that Kelly wanted Anne's bracelet in revenge for Josh setting her locker on fire."

"No, no, no!" She waved me off amusedly, "Kelly wanted Anne's _necklace_."

Considering how I just made that up, I don't want to know if her avoidance to the locker fire meant that it had actually happened.

"Now, now, _now_," I think the fact that I had just jumped into the one-sided conversation was making her a tad bit more hyper. "Kelly wanted Alex because he was Cathy's boyfriend, but she was only playing with him to make Elizabeth jealous and Suzanne—"

Let's try again. "I thought Suzanne was knocked out by the rabid shroomish."

"That was after she pushed Josh down the stairs."

"In revenge for the locker incident?"

"You're _finally_ getting it!" She squealed, slapping my arm silly in all the excitement. Whee. "Okay, now follow me carefully." She slowed down and got all serious, but I could tell she was still brimming with untouched excitement. "Suzanne accidentally ate the weedle."

…what. "You're joking."

"I'm not!"

"You are so."

"I'm serious!"

"I don't believe you!"

"You should because—"

"CIVILISATION!" I cried, pointing dramatically to the building up ahead. There were a few other trainers around, these looking bored out of their minds, but they whipped their heads in our direction the second I screeched. I instantly regretted it, already knowing what they were waiting for and dearly wanted. A good Pokémon battle. And I was not ready to deliver that. (I don't think we trained that much during our stay in this forest, Spyk and I.)

"Run!" My current accomplice cried, sprinting in the opposite direction when the bug catchers started pouncing for us. I nodded in agreement, catching up to her as I dodged the hands reaching out to grab us.

"I thought bug catchers were only hobbyists!" I panted, not used to the sudden sprint.

"I guess you were wrong!" She said back, grabbing my arm and yanking me behind a tree. We took the time to take back our previously lost air before falling into a laughing fit. "Did you see that?" She wheezed, clutching her stomach, "Just like a cartoon!"

"They blindly ran past!" I giggled, putting a hand on the tree to hold myself up. "How can they not see us hide behind a tree?"

"Hahahaha, I know right?"

"Yeah, they're so stupid!"

"Hehehe…" She beamed at me and held out a hand, "I never told you my name. I'm Ivey! It's nice to hang with you!"

I grabbed her hand and shook it, "I'm Maia! Likewise!"

When we finally calmed down and were able to move our feet (and breathe normally) again, we quickly ran back before the insane trainers could return and try to jump us again. We re-found the exit doors and burst through them, nearly collapsing on the super comfy chairs that were nearby. My butt yelled at me to go lower myself on them and I easily complied, propping my legs on a few more while I was at it. Ah, this had to be the life. I could certainly find a way to make a living out of sitting on chairs, oh yeah.

"Come on, Maia!" Ivey yelled at me from the second doors. "I know an even better place!"

"Where?" I asked, tilting my head in confusion and straightening myself up. A place that can beat these super comfy chairs? Heck yeah!

"The Pokémon Center!" She exclaimed, throwing the doors open and letting the fresh soothing air rush in to caress my cheeks.

* * *

"We'd like to get a room for the night!" Ivey chirped to the woman with pink hair behind the counter. Her nurse outfit matched the cute pink Pokémon rushing around behind her and it was quite a sight to see.

"Sure you can! You two are lucky, we only have a few rooms left!" She hummed, taking her time as she searched behind the counter for something.

"I didn't know Pokémon centers were also hotels!" I whispered to Ivey in surprise, trying not to be too rude by saying it out loud. "I thought that they were only a hospital!"

"They only rent rooms to trainers," Ivey replied with a grin, leaning her elbows on the counter, "And it's only for a few nights too, since it's free."

"_Free?_" I hissed, my jaw nearly dropping off its hinges, "Why? With all the trainers that exist, I bet they'd make a bunch of money!"

Ivey shook her head and the nurse—Nurse Joy, as says her nametag—appeared with two keys of the same room. We took them and she smiled at me, jumping into our conversation as if she was eavesdropping the whole time. She probably was, seeing as I was no good at whispering. "This is one of those 'help all, no matter the circumstances' kind of services. Since there's so many Pokémon, we heal and help all of them, no charge. It's the same for trainers, just in case a few unlucky ones fall into financial troubles and can't find a place for the night. We're always here to help those who are lost and are in need of guidance." When a beep resounded, she held up her finger for us to wait and went to get a tray with six slots. Four of them were taken by Pokéballs, one of them mine and the others' Ivey. She slid it on the counter towards us and we grabbed our respectable Pokémon back. "Volunteering doesn't hurt either." She winked as we started making our way to the back. "Don't be shy to stop by the cafeteria later for supper!" I hadn't even realized how late it had become.

"Thank you! We will!" We yelled back to her, our voices sounding weirdly jumbled up, out of tune, and not making any sense. She waved goodbye to us and we turned the corner, falling out of sight as we made our way down the hall. Ivey seemed to know the area pretty well, not surprised or hesitant as we walked through the large kitchen (I'm not joking! It was even bigger than my old school's cafeteria!) to get to the stairs, no elevator in sight. It felt homier without one.

"Don't tell me," I started when my bag started digging uncomfortably in my shoulder. I still had energy in me, but my body was yelling at me to shut down. "The meals are free too?"

"You bet!" She laughed and then patted me on the shoulder until I winced. "You're so cute! It's like this is your first time at a Pokémon center!"

I flushed. Although I lived in Viridian, my parents had banned me from going to this place unless it was for dire emergencies, which I doubt someone without a Pokémon would need, so I avoided the place like the plague. And when I avoided things, I didn't necessarily care about finding out information about them, you know what I mean?

"No way! This is your first time?" She gasped, but yet still lit up like a Christmas tree. "I love first timers! This is great!"

"How is it great?" I moped, pushing her forward when she stopped in the middle of the stairs to face me properly. "Hurry up!"

"It's great," She made a face at my nudging and skipped the rest two at a time until she reached the top and was able to loom way too dangerously over me. "_because_ I get to show you the ropes and teach you how awesome this place is and you'll be all like 'WHOA! AWESOMEEEEEEE!' like a little kid—"

I steered her up the second flight of stairs, glancing down at the number 305 on my room card. Dang it, we still have another flight of stairs to go through. "I am a little kid."

"—and not just this place either! I can tell you about _THE WORLD_! Like, for instance, like omg, did you know the Pokémart—"

"That blue shop?"

"—YEAH! _That_ one! Anyway, did you know that they're trying to convince the Champion to merge it in the Pokémon center? I'm not joking! They're trying it out in Unova! I would know, I was born there!" She picked up the first Pokéball on her belt and waved it around. "And this is my starter, Vivian!"

"Are you drunk?" I blurted, not really thinking about it. I was introduced to this a bit early; my parents had a habit of getting quite tipsy a few days per month to get them in the mood and a bit happier than normal. When that happens, it's the best time to ask for that present you always wanted but cannot have because they think it's not good for you. (I managed to get my own hairdryer, a Skitty for a month, and a free trip to Goldenrod.)

"No!" She laughed, shoving me. "I'm just really excited!"

"That doesn't reassure me…" I grumbled, looking away.

She rolled her eyes and hip-bumped me, and I nearly fell down and rolled down the stairs in surprise. I swear I was going to, at the very least, break a few bones by simply hanging out with this girl.

"Where are the stairs?" I wondered, glancing down the new hall we appeared inside.

"Uh…" She joined in my wondering, before pointing down to my left. "That way."

"Okay." Like a good couple of soldiers, we made our way over and climbed the final (for us, since there's still a few more) pair of stairs. "We're almost there."

"Yay!" She whopped, throwing her arms up and whacking me in the face. I spluttered and slapped her back, and I swear we started a slap fight right in the middle of the stairs, which had to be the worst place possible since there wasn't any elbow room. When my face finally started getting sore and Ivey's hair looked as if rattatas had been living in it forever, my aim being lame, we finally stopped and dragged our tired bodies up the rest of the stairs and into our room.

It was small, quaint, and reminded me too much of my parents, but that's mostly because of the colours they like to wear—red, blue, and white—the generic trainer colours. There were two sets of bunk beds, a few bedside tables, a closet, and two random chairs next to the full-body mirror. I slipped my bag off my shoulder and lazily dragged it with me as I went over to one of the bunk beds and dropped dead on it like a doll.

"Cowabunga!" I heard Ivey yell before a body landed on top of mine and literally smushed my insides out of my butt. "Haha!"

"Get your own bed!" I whined, rolling over and giving her some space anyway.

"I'm taking the other bottom bunk," She swatted my arm but then sighed and stopped moving altogether, just laying there. I followed her example and simply stared at the wooden roof of the bottom of the top bunk, our breathing the only thing heard in the silence. I think this had to be the most peaceful moment I ever had with this girl. It was really nice, even soothing. As if my thoughts had jinxed it, she picked up again. "This is nice."

"Yeah." I agreed, not really knowing where she was going with this. "It is."

She turned on her side towards me and propped herself up on one elbow. "Why Hoenn?"

"Just because," I shrugged and didn't bother turning to her too. "I dunno, there's more stuff there? It seems to be the most interesting?"

"That's it?" She whined, plopping right back down again, her elbow hitting me in the side and getting me to jerk. "Laaaame."

"Well…" Don't try to defend yourself, you'll just appear lamer! "…what about you? What are you doing all the way over here in Kanto?"

There was a long pause as she took the time to think about it, her face void of any kind of emotion. When I thought that she was finally going to say something interesting, she rolled off the bed and picked up her bag. "Well, I'm gonna go take a shower!"

"Whoa, wait!" I quickly rolled over so that I was practically dangling off the edge of the bed and grabbed the end of her bag before she could flee, "Don't change the subject! How come you're allowed to bug me for information but I can't do the same?"

"Because!" She growled, yanking her bag free and opening the door, "Respect your elders!" And with that, she strutted out of the room and perfected her dramatic exit, even if it made absolutely no sense.

"Never!" I yelled after her, even if there was no reason to. She was probably gone anyway.

"Mouahaha!" I heard her bellow in the hallway, slowly walking further away. Okay, so maybe she had heard me.

Now that she was gone and I had the room to myself, I started to realize how relaxing and calming it was to finally catch a break. My back was set comfortably on a comfy bed, unlike the awkward few nights of fail camping I had to settle with. The air was clean and fresh, unlike the insect and moss filled one of the forest. My feet stopped aching and were pulsing happily, taking to light fuzzy feeling as I promptly lost all feeling leading to them. I closed my eyes, feeling in utter bliss, before I realized that there could be someone else enjoying this moment with me as well. I dropped my hands from tummy (a comfy comfy place to set them when I have nowhere else) to my hip, taking my only Pokéball from my belt. I really hoped I would get a full team by the time I become an awesome Pokémon master, that way I'd no longer get to feel so lonely.

"Pichuu…" Spyk yawned the second I set him free, curling up on my pillow next to my face. I smiled at him and he blinked blearily back, probably not registering me since we were both ready to doze off into snooze land. I petted him as he easily fell asleep, my mind turning to mush as I followed his example and closed my eyes again. The fuzzy sensation flittered all over my senses and I relished in the feeling of sleep.

An alarm sounded loudly, right next to my ear.

I shrieked in surprise and instantly sat up, smacking my head on something hard and wooden. I groaned and fell back on my pillow, rubbing my poor forehead that took the blunt of the force. The bottom of the top bunk stared down at me, taunting me, and I resisted the urge to throw it out the window. Stupid bunk beds with their stupid wooden top-bunky-ness! I rolled over and covered my head with my pillow. Uggh, I so wasn't good in the morning. I haven't even realized there was something wiggling underneath my stomach until I was zapped to a crisp.

"Okay fine…" I grumbled, literally crawling out of bed and falling flat on the floor. "No bed for me…"

When I finally got off the floor, turned off the stupid alarm clock that Ivey thought was smart to leave on (I can't believe I slept until morning, I must've been really tired), changed into some decent clothes (my bag is so big I can fit four outfits, not including my PJs, inside of it), pulled Spyk off my bed (and getting electrocuted another three more times), made said bed, _accidentally_ dropped the alarm out the window when it thought it was smart to start up again, and cleaned up, I finally made my way downstairs and to the kitchen. A room filled with what seemed like hundreds of trainers greeted me, most of the tables filled as people came and went like this were normal. I glanced around, suddenly awkward, not knowing what to do. The breakfast buffet was calling me though, so I put my booty in gear and got in line. After what seemed like an hour of contemplating—everything looked good man, _EVERYTHING_—I finally chose some chocolate chip pancakes and tried to find an empty table.

"Maia! Over here!" I heard my name being yelled and turned around, finally seeing Ivey today. Since she oddly wasn't in the room this morning, I assumed she had ditched me to continue on her own journey and I had planned to hurry my posterior over through Mt. Moon—barf—so that I could arrive at Vermilion as soon as I could, now that my only distraction was gone. Spotting her here brought conflicting emotions, since I couldn't determine if she would slow me down or help me. She was a wild card. Still, it was great to know that even though I had asked about her motive, she wasn't too grumpy about it. As I neared her table though, I found that she was with another trainer (she looked to be our age too) and they both had bacon in their plates. Upon spotting the totally awesomesauce food, I considered changing direction and getting some of my own, but I was too close to the girls to abandon ship.

"Hello," I greeted the one I didn't know with a smile, taking the seat next to Ivey and addressing her next. "I thought you left."

"Not when there's bacon." And just to tempt me, she took a very long and exaggerated bite out of said piece of sexylicious food. "Mmm!"

I rolled my eyes and turned to our audience-of-one. "I'm Maia." I waved to the weirdly silent Pichu on my shoulder. "And this is Spyk."

She smiled back, looking a bit awkward. I would be too, if I were her. "Samantha."

"It's nice to meet you."

"It's nice to meet you too."

Spyk decided this was as good a time as any to hop onto the table. I let him go, unsure of what he was going to do, but then I grabbed his tail and stopped him when I realized his true ambition was for Ivey's bacon that was still dangling from her slowly eating mouth. "Spyk, no. You're too obvious."

"Pi…" He grumbled, sitting down on the spot, eyes still locked hypnotizingly on the bacon. Ivey snickered and waved the piece of meat tauntingly in front of his face, and I quickly picked him up and moved him to my lap before he would pounce. I kept one hand to hold him in place (if I didn't, he would run off to steal someone else's food) and used the other to savor my own food. I saved him a few pieces though, and he was really happy stuffing his face until he couldn't stuff no more, which then made him tired and had him take a nap. I started petting him as a distraction, letting Ivey and Samantha chat idly about stuff I didn't really care about (hot springs, malls, beaches, guys, etc.) until my ears bled.

"Come on out and eat, you guys!" Ivey suddenly surprised me as she activated all three of her Pokéballs, three matching beams of red light soon taking form next to her. I watched on curiously, almost on the edge of my seat to see her team. I had wanted to see them earlier, but I wasn't going to pester her about it. I knew that if I stayed around her long enough, I'd get to see them. A servine was the first to appear, sniffing the air before its sights zeroed it on the food in its master's plate. It literally glued itself to Ivey's side. "That's Vivian." The next two appeared at the same time: a bayleef, which was too big to fit under the table if it needed to hide, and a bulbasaur, who was shaking in horror once it saw all the trainers around it. "And those two are Lily and Momo, respectively."

"What are you doing with so many rare starters?" Samantha asked in surprise. She had the right to be, and I swear my own jaw would be near my ankles if it weren't for my trusty skin.

I think the better question would have to be my own. "Did you take them from other trainers?"

"No!" Ivey gawked at us, putting a hand on her heard and feigning hurt. "How can you say that?"

"Well, you have more than one starter." Samantha started, holding up her fingers as she listed off. "It's a known fact that you can only get a starter from the region you are born from." Another finger went up. "The Professors are super picky about who they give their starters to." She was at finger four now. "And it is also known that they only allow one starter a person." Oh my goodness, she was still going on. Did this girl know her stuff or what? "Also, in the case of trading Pokémon, 90% of trainers would want another Pokémon of the same value in return, unless it's for personal reasons. Therefore, you'd have to trade starter for starter, or no deal." My gosh, how many reasons does she have in mind? "And there's also—"

"Okay, okay!" Ivey held up her hands in surrender. "I get it! You don't like that I have such epic Pokémon!"

"That's not—" Samantha instantly started to defend, but I quickly cut her off, just as Ivey bent over and placed a few plates of Pokémon food on the ground for her team.

"How _do_ you have those Pokémon?"

Ivey straightened up and winked, "I worked out a deal with the Professors."

"You _slept_ with them?" Samantha hissed incredulously, leaning over the table to make sure no one else heard. I gaped and gave Ivey a horrified look.

She caught it and shook her head a few thousand times, "No! I would never do that!"

"Wouldn't surprise me," I threw under my breath.

Ivey shoved me and stuttered a bit before finally saying something straight. "I-I got special permission! I work for this special group in Unova and because of their help, I worked something out with the Professors. _And_ it's a bonus that I get to choose which ones too, since I really like grass Pokémon." She smiled down at her team but then propped her chin in her hand sadly. "I love my team and all, but I hate that there's only five grass starters. I have one more place that I have no idea who to fill with."

"Well, the most helpful type of Pokémon to get is either flying or water." Samantha started again. I think I understood that every time she started with _well_, it meant a rant filled with information was coming on. "And your starters are all grass, so that brings a problem. All of your starters are uni-type, with the exception of bulbasaur who's also poison, which means you can only surf _or_ fly from town to town, if you still want a final grass type. So tell me, which do you prefer? Flying or surfing?"

Ivey bit her lip anxiously. "Considering I'm scared of heights, I'll have to go with surfing."

"Alright, that narrows down your choices then." Samantha grabbed her cute white balloon bag—what? It looked like a balloon!—and pulled out a small red, rectangle object. One side of it curbed towards a small white Pokéball, and it opened up horizontally. "My Pokedex. It looks different because it's from Hoenn." Samantha said when she noticed my look. She searched through the list of Pokémon on it before turning it around and flashing a specific one in Ivey's face. "The only water and grass option: a lotad."

"Oh my god! That's so cute!" Ivey squealed, taking the dex in and rubbing her face on the screen, as if the cuteness could be caught. "I want it! It's perfect!"

And, as she said, it was cute. It had the tiniest little green body and the biggest green leaf on its head. I could just imagine it floating in a river, its giant lilypad the only thing seen as it waited. A yanma would near to rest and BAM! Caught! It's the perfect camouflage! Haha, it would totally be an epic Pokémon to have.

"Maia," Ivey turned to me, eyes twinkling and sparkling and doing other creepy things. "I'm coming with you to Hoenn!"

I guess that answers that question then.


	4. 004: New Direction

_I finally finished my vacation-away-from-home and locked myself in my room again. Well, I attempted to, but then I had to get out for another few more days and I couldn't do anything on my computer. I'm sorry this hadn't been updated earlier!_

_Thank you so much, Gentle Blossom! Your review had me smiling all day and dancing around my makeshift room for a good twenty minutes! 8D No joke!_

_And to everyone who's following along with this story, thank you! I'm happy to have you lovely readers with me!_

_Please have fun and enjoy!_

* * *

_**The Blatant Disregard of a Pokémon Trainer v2**_

* * *

_Mother a contest champion. Father a famous photographer. What will she do to get away from all the criticizing and all the skepticism? Join the rebellion! Become a Pokémon trainer._

I try to stay out of trouble all the time. But it's not my fault! My mouth can't shut up to save its life! It's almost like a bad habit, one that won't go away no matter what I try to do. I feel really bad for my friends, since they have to put up with me as I go on my journey to become a Pokémon Master.

* * *

**_004. New direction._**

* * *

Have you ever been in that one moment, where you simply stare at yourself in the mirror and wonder: "Who am I?"

Have you wondered the same thing about the acquaintances you decided it was cool to befriend?

"Aww look!" Ivey beamed and pointed at me, "She's so happy she's speechless!"

Right. Don't forget that said acquaintances are also delusional.

Samantha rolled her eyes and tried to keep the subject on track. "Don't worry about catching them either. You can find them everywhere if you search hard enough at the right places."

Ivey was still too excited to stay with her though. "This is awesome! I'm so excited! Aren't you excited? This is so exciting!"

"Calm down, Ivey," I sighed, yet a small smile slowly reached my lips, "We're not even in Hoenn yet."

"This close," She held up her thumb and her index finger up, about a few centimeters apart, "This close!"

"Okay, okay," I tried to calm her down, but it was suddenly impossible to do something as simple as that. "If you want to come with me, you have to help me figure out a way to survive our scale up Mt. Moon."

Samantha flinched, "Ouch. Talk about bad luck. You have a Pichu."

"I know." I nodded in agreement. "There has to be another way around it. This is too cruel."

"I would fly you guys, but I don't have a flying Pokémon."

Ivey jumped in with her own confused look. My goodness, she was finally calm. It was a miracle. "How did you get here then?"

"Diglett's cave." She said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

My eyebrows shot up in surprise. A cave? There was a cave? How come no mentioned this to me before? I would've been all over it!

"It goes straight from Pewter City to Vermillion City," She shot us a look when we nearly smothered her in excited expressions, "but—"

"That's perfect!" I cried my own excited squeal, once again cutting her off. She glared at me and I made more faces at her. "Awesome! How long do you think it takes to go through it?"

"Probably a week," Ivey answered, although the question wasn't directed at her. "Can't be that long."

"Depending on how fast you go, it'll take two to three weeks," Samantha shook her head at us, "but—"

"How long were you in there then?" It was Ivey's turn to cut her off.

"A month, but that's only because I lost my brother mid-way and had to turn back."

"You have a brother?" I hadn't even noticed I was onboard the conversation.

"Is he hot?" Ivey was _very_ excited. Hur hur.

Samantha smacked her over the head. "He's thirty years old and married. Calm down."

"Still, though," Ivey shrugged like it was no big deal, "is he hot?"

Samantha looked both appalled and confused at the same time. "…I guess so?"

Ivey grinned as if she just got news that she had won an award for being awesome. "Sweet!"

Samantha looked at me for help. I simply shrugged and decided it was time to let Ivey know that Vivian had decided to join the other trainers at the buffet tables.

"Get back here!" Ivey yelped in surprise, jumping up from the table and practically pouncing on her Pokémon before it vacuumed up the whole table.

Meanwhile, I turned my gaze to Ivey's two—er… one now, since her bulbasaur was scurrying frantically after her master—remaining Pokémon, the bayleef's eyes locking with mine. I held her gaze, determined not to back down. She felt the same way I did, apparently, since she stretched her neck and made herself comfortable on the ground, sitting on her hind legs and folding her paws, not once blinking. I widened my eyes and got all serious, trying to be intimidating, but she only looked amused at my face. I scowled and narrowed my eyes, daring her to do better. Without having to be mentally told twice, she made some sort of grimace or goofy expression that had Sam snorting.

"Sorry about that—" Ivey chose this moment to re-enter the scene. "What the heck are you doing?"

I wasn't going to back down though, so I didn't dare look at her. "Can't talk. Staring contest."

"Lily?" She tried again. The Pokémon let out a small affirmative chirp and her tail swished at the sound of her name, but she still didn't blink.

"Okay fine," Ivey gave up, "Can I talk with you for a bit, Sam? Elsewhere?"

"Sure," I heard the sound of the chairs scrapping on the floor and the girl getting up. I spotted them walking away in my peripheral vision and nearly freaked out.

"Where are you guys going?" I called, eyes still locked on the spot between the bayleef's eyes, right where her giant leaf sprouted.

"Just out for a bit," Ivey waved me off, as if it was no big deal, "Take care of Lily and take a stroll around town or something. Keep yourselves busy."

I wasn't quite happy that they were ditching me for a while as they spoke about whatever, but I couldn't pry. It was rude and mean and none of my business. "I guess…"

"Oh!" She quickly remembered, "And stalk up on those granola bars! You don't have some anymore!"

"That's because you ate them all!" I threw behind her just as the doors slid shut. The second the four of them were out of sight, I sighed and broke eye contact with Lily, feeling oddly dissatisfied and lonely now that our small group had split. Plus, I had to figure out a way to keep myself busy until Ivey's done with whatever, which could take all day, for all I knew. I didn't like it, but unless I wanted to be forever alone for the rest of my adventure, I had to be flexible. It didn't feel great though, and I kept reminding myself that if I wanted to leave by myself, I had to find Ivey first and return her Pokémon, which I could easily do after their top secret conversation is over. Might as well wait a bit and do some sight-seeing. I had missed that on the first day in town, the need to find a comfy bed being much stronger.

I glanced down at Spyk, who was still napping away in my lap (how much sleep does he _still_ need? I know we had a long trek through the forest, but seriously!), and Lily, who sent me a smug smirk when she noticed I had my eyes on her. I stuck out my tongue in reply and placed Spyk on her back, mostly because I didn't want to rouse him as I got up. She didn't seem to mind either, and trotted lightly behind me as I moved to put away the trash, which I found really endearing and amusing at the same time. I patted her head, not holding a grudge over the staring contest, and beamed, her leafy presence being really nice. Sightseeing with two Pokémon couldn't be all that bad. Lily's tamed and Spyk's, well, sort of behaved. _Sort of._

Much to my pleasure, I had nothing to worry about.

Spyk didn't even cause a ruckus as he woke up to the feel of the fresh air on his fur. He simply stretched on his tummy, rolled over (and practically fell off), and then stared at me as if I had blessed him with all the power in the world. Don't worry, I hadn't. I wasn't that suicidal. I patted his own little head though, which got Lily jealous so I petted her again, and we started on our little tour. I spotted a few tour guides and considered joining them, but then thought against it when I noticed the mischievous glint in Spyk's eyes. Better not cause trouble during our stay yet.

Pewter City wasn't big, yet it wasn't small. There was enough houses and population so that everyone could get to know each other if they wanted. Yet, most of the building were important and helped attract tourists and travelers, so not a lot of people were out and about. Other than the tourists with the tour guides, I didn't actually spot some natives here.

There was a museum at the back, a Gym near it, and a few more houses around it. The mart was near the center, so trainers didn't have to worry, and there were other small malls and hotels nearby as well. The roads were large and made of chip seal, which gave a sort of rocky, almost nature, kind of feel to the town, especially since it was right next to a mountain. I spotted one or two few trucks loitering around, everyone walking instead, and the vehicles only seemed to be there for emergencies or to transport super heavy items. Pewter City seemed like a good city I would enjoy. I wasn't too big a fan of the more urban cities, like Celadon or Goldenrod, but I didn't hate them completely. There was something about everyone bustling around and going about their own business that attracted yet disgusted me. I like that you could do what you wanted without having someone else wondering what you were up to, but at the same time, it seemed very lonesome. While in small cities and towns everyone gets to be friends, in the bigger ones you can only care for yourself or else you'd get trampled all over by someone better than you.

"Pi pi!" Spyk suddenly cried, startling me. I froze in mid-step in the direction of the museum (might as well check it out, since we had time) and turned back, wondering what he wanted my attention for. He climbed onto the top of Lily's head and pointed at the large building nearby. I glanced back at the gym, wondering why the heck he would want to enter that when it was filled with rock types, and gave him a confused look. "Piii!" He tried again, his eyes growing in what I knew as the wounded growlithe look. I sucked in a breath and resisted the urge to hug him tight.

"Okay, fine," I grumbled, retracting my steps. "But only to look!"

"Pii!" He beamed happily, reaching across Lily's face to grab my shirt and hug my arm. Oh yeah, love me when I let you do stuff. I feel totally appreciated.

It was built of stone and rock, smaller ones cascading down and around it. There was a giant icon of the badge at the very top, with the words _Pewter Gym_ right next to it. There was no way to mistake this place. The doors were large and transparent, and I could distinctly spot a reception desk through it. I held the door open for Lily to waddle through and smiled at the woman at the desk, explaining to her quickly that I just came to watch. She nodded and led me to a pair of stairs that lead upwards. I thanked her, unsure why the heck she wanted me to go up, and started climbing them, helping Lily when she needed a push and making sure to reprimand Spyk when he wouldn't stop chattering and actually be quiet. When I finally reached the top, I found that this was the viewing area. There was a few other trainers sitting on these raised bleachers, but most of them were leaning over the railing to cheer on the battle that was apparently going on bellow. I spotted some other stairs on the other side, and when I leaned over to see where they lead to, they went straight to the challenger area of the gym. It was really well thought out that way.

"Steelix, dodge and use tackle!" A rough, adult male voice brought my eyes to the floor bellow, making them widen when I finally noticed the giant snake made of legit _steel_. I knew steelixes were big, but I not _that_ big! It flew—flew? More like sashayed in fast forward—and went head first into its opponent, a small blue creature with an orange shell.

"Are you okay, Squirtle?" Challenger asked worriedly, not at all minding that his squirtle's lack of nickname was an embarrassment to the rest of us trainers. Squirtle nodded obediently and jumped back to its feet, apparently not at all bothered by the fact that metal could come to life and head butt it. "Great!" Sir Challenger pointed to his opponent. "Use water gun! Right now!"

"Squirtle!" The blue created chirped cutely, before taking in a big breath and puffing up its chest. After a few seconds, it released everything it had in a giant burst of water, heading straight for the steel type. I followed the attack with my eyes, surprised at how fast the battle was going on, and leaned over the railing myself. Lily plopped down on the ground, not wanting to see the battle, and Spyk started swinging his tiny fists around on my shoulder, almost as if he was a boxer.

The gym leader wasn't worried about a thing. "Use dig, Steelix!"

Just when I thought the steelix would get hit, the creature bent over and plowed its face in the ground. As if the ground had suddenly become the biggest pushover in the world, it easily let the snake slide in and hide. I gaped and nudged the poor unfortunate trainer that was somehow standing next to me. I pitied the fool.

"What?" He looked confused as to why I was suddenly interacting with him.

"Is he allowed to do that?" I instantly asked, not at all bothered by the look.

He warmed up and smirked, feeling cocky now that he knew I was a rookie trainer. "Of course!"

"Huh." I squinted at the ground and waited for one of the Pokémon to do something. The squirtle looked absolutely confused, and the steelix was still hiding underground.

Challenger smirked, "Squirtle, fill the hole with water!"

I yanked on violently on neighbor's sleeve. "Dude!"

"What?" He hissed, yanking his arm free and not liking that I was bothering him so much.

Tough cookies for him. "He can't do that!"

He rolled his eyes at me. "Yes, he can."

I pouted once the squirtle puffed up his chest, getting ready for his attack. That was so not fair! It was interfering with the attack! That had to be illegal or something!

"Relax, this always happens," The dude who was next to me nudged me back when he noticed my distressed expression, "and I know my brother was ready for it when he chose to go underground," He nudge me again and smirked. "Have faith! He's not a Gym Leader for nothing!"

I gaped at him unashamedly. "He's your brother?"

His smirk grew, "Of course! How else would I be so awesome?"

Wait what. "You're awesome?"

He rolled his eyes at me the second I heard a "Now Steelix!" from the battleground. I looked back down, watching as the squirtle threw up water in the hole, like it was commanded to do, and waited. What was that gym leader ordering? Was the steelix supposed to do something right now? It had to hurry up if it didn't want to drown! Uggh, I hate that there was nothing out of the ordinary happening.

That's when I noticed it.

The ground was shaking! It was impossible to tell from here, because we were set up like a balcony overlooking the fight, but the ground was shaking like a mini earthquake and there were these tiny crevasses appearing right under the squirtle's feet. My jaw dropped yet again as the giant steel snake flew out from said cracks, literally hitting the water type's butt as he came out from the ground, its large body flying up to wink at us before going back down and landing perfectly on the ground. That. Was. So. _Fabulous_.

Oh yeah, and the squirtle was laying limp near his trainer.

"And the winner is our very own Gym Leader, Forrest!" The referee—where the heck did she come from?—exclaimed from bellow, holding up her left hand at said gym leader. The gym leader didn't care about this though, and crossed the field to shake hands with the challenger. Challenger picked up his fainted Pokémon and had some emotional moment with him before he bowed to Forrest and high-tailed it out of there. What a wimp.

"That was so cool!" I squealed, holding my hands on my mouth to muffle the sound. I didn't really want to sound like a crushing fangirl or anything. BUT HELLO, DID YOU SEE THAT? Total epic badassery! That was well thought out! He dodged the water gun and managed to attack it with the same move! I was totally impressed! I wanna see that again! More battling! I want to see more epic battling!

"Alright, do we have another challenger?" Gym leader Forrest suddenly appeared right in front of us, standing on top of his steelix's head to be able to reach our height. I started, taken off guard but then grinned, approving at the creative way of transportation. His gaze shifted through us, and I looked over my shoulder to see if anyone was up to it. I wasn't surprised when a few of them avoided his gaze and pretended to do something else, their confidence completely crushed. Mine would be too, after seeing a water Pokémon getting defeated by the very type of Pokémon he supposedly had an advantage over. That would make me want to rethink my strategy. But it also gave me an idea.

There's a thing about type advantage. It gave confidence, but it also turned the trainer cocky, thinking they could easily defeat their opponent without having to try. Without a proper plan or strategy, they can easily be overpowered and taken down, which would cost them a lot (mostly their egos). It's no use to only have an advantage, but it's also good to think ahead in case that advantage can be turned against him. Which also brought me to my next point.

"I would like to battle you!" I said confidently, raising my hand as I spoke.

Screw type advantage. If an advantage makes you lose, then my high disadvantage will bring me a key factor to my victory.

Underestimation.

"Are you sure?" Forrest asked, eyes eying my pichu with concern, obviously knowing that it was a bad move to challenge him with an electric Pokémon. Good gym leader. Go ahead and doubt that my pichu can win. That's when we'll strike you in the face and win forever! MOUAHAHA!

"Yup!" I chirped, disrupting my mental tirade and turning my head to Spyk just to be sure, "What do you say, Spyk?"

"Pichu!" Spyk grinned in agreement, and pumped his tiny fist in the air in determination. I knew he would love this challenge. From what I knew about him, he was almost completely like me; impulsive, stubborn, hotheaded, and egotistical. We had this teamwork thing in the bag. I just hope our lack of practice won't affect us too much. I trusted Spyk and I sure hope he trusted me back. I had some weird calls up my sleeve.

"It's settled then." Forrest nodded grimly, probably unamused by my choice of Pokémon. I was so glad Lily was sleeping on the floor, or else I bet he'd try to convince me to use her instead. I was so not going to do that, because, you know, I'm stubborn and I don't change my mind often. He turned around and he and his steelix started to go back down to the floor level.

"Wait!" I called, outstretching my hand and trying to catch his shirt. I obviously failed and nearly fell off the railing to fall flat on the floor, and Sir-Dude-Of-My-Neighboring-Kingdom was apparently laughing at my failness. I glared at him to SHUTYOURMOUTHFOOL and he shrugged as if he didn't care. I stuck my tongue out at him and we had this weird, make-a-crazy-face face-off, which ultimately amused the gym leader, because, well, I had told him to wait and he got to see it. Haha, oops. There I go, making faces to every friendly—sort of—face I meet.

"Yes?" Forrest drawled once my eyes were back on him, placing a hand on his hip and striking an epic pose. Aw yeah, what an epic gym leader I have to face!

Insert fangirl squeal here.

SQUEEEEE!

What.

"Can I get a ride?" I asked, eying the steelix under his feet as if it was the only source of water in a world filled with mud and dirty things filled with dirt.

"Uh…" He shot me a look. Guessing that I was the only one who had asked this of him apparently, I ignored it. "Okay."

"Yay!" I beamed, making sure Spyk was good on my shoulder before climbing the railing and grabbing Forrest's extended hand—extended for _my_ climbing purposes only—and getting on. He let go of my hand (aw man) when he was sure that I was good standing by myself and could handle it. It was pretty easy, seeing as the top of the steelix's head was pretty flat, and we slowly eased down to the floor, just in case I slipped and promptly fell off and broke my shoulder (I already broke said piece of bone and I never want to do it ever again). If I ever got a steelix, I swear I would never have to use those stupid stairs ever again!

"Watch over Lily!" I threw over my shoulder at dude-who-is-apparently-Forrest's-brother. He pointed at himself in confusion and I nodded. He was still confused, probably because he didn't know who Lily was, so I kindly decided to help him. "Look to your left!" He turned just in time to get hit in the face by the bayleef's giant leaf. She smacked him a few more times, unhappy for being ignored (good thing I was nowhere in her hitting range), and sent a glare in my direction. I bit back my laughter at Forrest's brother's misfortune and sent Lily a grimace. She narrowed her eyes at me and I knew I was going to get it later.

One we got as close to floor as we would ever get, I jumped off and the ref neared us. She looked really similar to Forrest, with the same hair (only hers was longer) and eyes and skin tone… she could be his sister or something! That would totally not surprise me.

"I'm Forrest's sister, Yolanda." She greeted with a smile, holding out her hand for a shake. Aha! I was right!

"Maia," I shook her hand and smiled back, happy to see a girl working for this gym that obviously seemed to aim towards guys. You know, rocks and steel and mud and caves and stuff like that totally doesn't attract girls. Forrest would need to change his tactics if he's trying to attract his next girlfriend to his place, just saying. "And this is Spyk!" Spyk also held out his hand to her and they shook hands good-naturedly.

"Are you sure you want to challenge my brother?" She asked in a whisper, giving wary glances to her brother that was patting his steelix while having a conversation with it. He caught her look and waved at her, a confused look gracing his sexy face, and she waved back as if nothing was wrong.

I wasn't fazed. I had to be determined! "I'm sure,"

"It's just," She started leading me to the challenger side, "you have to have a lot more common sense! An electric type obviously won't win against a ground type—"

"Yolanda," I cut off, hoping I had her name right. I sure hope I did. "I'm completely aware of my chances."

"Then why—"

I shrugged. I didn't have a reason. I just wanted to try it. Battling a gym leader would be a challenge, and challenges are fun to me. "Because it would be good experience."

She didn't look convinced, but patted my arm sympathetically as if I already been defeated and was absolutely sure I would fail, and then returned back to her station. That was so rude of her. The least she could do was fake a smile and cheer me on, even if she thought I was going to fail.

But it still fuelled me.

I felt the rage and irritation of others not believing in me, it growing tenfold when I thought about my backstabbing childhood friends and teachers, and even more, my parents. Every time I had wanted to do something outrageous or cool or fun, my 'friends' would cheer me on and say all was good. When it came to it, they tattletaled on me the second they got caught and hurt and left me with all the blame. If it weren't for their words and them cheering me on, I would've never done it with my own power. I was a dreamer. And my dreams were crushed by the ones who took it too far and _my parents_.

Especially when they didn't want me to become a Pokémon trainer.

I'll show them! I'll show everyone! I can do anything I set my mind to! You don't want me to become a trainer? Then I'll be one and I'll succeed so hard that you'll finally see how great and how awesome I actually am! I'll do things with my own power and you'll wish that I would call you my entourage! You'll say that you know me, but do you really? I _will_ be the greatest no one ever was, and you'll regret all those things you've ever done to me! And who says an electric type can't beat a ground type? I was obviously not counting on a type advantage when I challenged Forrest, now was I?

I had to show them that I could do it. This is no longer just to test my limits and to work my strategies.

It. Was now. Personal.

Forrest, Yolanda, random brother in the stands, you'll _all_ see that even someone with the littlest odds can overcome the biggest hurdles! It just takes courage and determination!

And that, I've got plenty enough, _thankyouverymuch_.

"Ladies and gentlemen!" Missus Ref bellowed, raising her arms high, "The one-on-one battle between Challenger Maia and our own Pewter City Gym Leader Forrest will now begin!"


	5. 005: A Step Away

_I think the only time I actually think about my stories is when I study, which is odd because it's seriously distracting me. I spent all day brainstorming this chapter out and working on it, even rewriting the basic plot for the rest of the story. It was really intense. My mom even came in my room and ranted for an hour about how I was wasting my precious study day on this bullshit. Her words, not mine. I didn't react to her words and waited for her to leave before throwing a few books in frustration. But hey, what's an author without some haters, amiright?_

_I also tried to make this chapter longer than usual since it's been so long that I updated. But I guess I still didn't fulfill that since I wanted to get at least 10 thousand words in, but I only managed an approximate 8 thousand. I'm sorry! I promise I can do better!_

_I hope you enjoy this chapter! R&R if you'd please as well! Feedback is appreciated!_

* * *

_**The Blatant Disregard of a Pokémon Trainer v2**_

* * *

_Mother a contest champion. Father a famous photographer. What will she do to get away from all the criticizing and all the skepticism? Join the rebellion! Become a Pokémon trainer._

I try to stay out of trouble all the time. But it's not my fault! My mouth can't shut up to save its life! It's almost like a bad habit, one that won't go away no matter what I try to do. I feel really bad for my friends, since they have to put up with me as I go on my journey to become a Pokémon Master.

* * *

**_005. A step away._**

* * *

I decided to test the waters first. "Spyk, tackle!"

Forrest matched our pace. "Steelix, use tackle as well!"

I watched them go. The steelix was way bigger and way faster than my pichu. Heck, with a simple tackle, he could even take us down! I had to move and fast.

"Spyk, to the right!" I called a few seconds before impact. Spyk swerved in perfect tempo to the direction I told him, even having enough time to land a good smack on the steel type's side with his tail, before running behind him, keeping short distance between them.

"Follow it!" Forrest continued following my lead, clearly not taking me that seriously. The steelix turned its large body and tried to reach my tiny pokémon. Spyk's reason for sticking close was clearer now, wanting to hinder the rock type's movement, trying to bend him at an angle that was near impossible. Forrest furrowed his eyebrows at the scene, expression undecipherable.

"To the left!" I cried when I saw the opportunity knock on our door. The steelix's face was hovering nearby, snaking his boy around, but there was a good spot, to the left, where Spyk could squeak through him to make a perfect knot. "With thunder wave!"

"Pichu!" Spyk saw what I saw and dove for the spot, glowing with electricity. As he went through, there was a spark, and I swear I saw electricity pass through the steel snake's body, before Spyk faithfully returned to his spot in front of me.

"Good job, Spyk!"

"Pichu-pi!"

"So what?" Forrest sneered as his Pokémon straightened up, not at all bothered that it almost became a living bowtie.

I shrugged. "It was worth a try."

With a roll of his eyes (I think that was his eyes? They're awfully narrow…) he pointed at us, "Go, tackle!"

"Wait for it…" I told my Pokémon, taking a defensive stance along with him. The steel type flew at us at the speed of light, and I swear I was quaking in fear of getting hit too. "Wait for it…" It was right in our faces. "Take it back now y'all!" I yelled like the world was going to end. Spyk did a fabulous backflip and slid out of sight, down into the previous hole that the steelix had created (the one with the battle against the Squirtle). Said steel Pokémon flew above the hiding spot and stopped, looking wildly about and not realizing where my electric mouse had gone. It shot me an accusative look, but I held up my hands in defense to show that I had nothing to do with it. Of course, I had to continue my song: "One hop this time!"

Something collided with Steelix's tail from the spot that Spyk was hidden. There was a release of electricity, though I doubt it did anything, and the steelix whirled on the spot, his face facing the hole. Forrest knew what that meant, "Steelix, dig!"

"One hop this time!" I continued the song, trying not to let my anxiety show. Spyk hadn't shown up, and I could see Forrest twitch every time I said a lyric, getting irritated with me. I was starting to worry.

"Pi-pi-pi!" Spyk chirped as he jumped out of the ground from the other end of the tunnel. I let out the breath I was holding in relief and smiled. But the smile vanished when I started to feel the ground shake underneath my feet, and the steelix came out right after Spyk, flying high in the sky and looking like it was going to land on my little mouse.

"Slide to the left!"

Almost comically, Spyk took one large step to the side and slid further in that direction. The steelix landed face-first on the ground, but it shook itself off and dived back into the ground at the command of its trainer, leaving us to dread to incoming invasions to hit our butts. I looked wildly around but I knew that no matter what we did, it would make its way underneath us. There was no way it could miss. I had to think of a way out before Spyk got hurt.

Speaking of Spyk, I was just now noticing how much he was panting. We had never battled or had him run for such a long time. He wasn't used to battle, and I could tell he needed a nap soon—he was still just a baby after all. Maybe it was a bad idea to get him involved. Maybe if I had chosen Lily instead, even if she wasn't mine, then—

"Now Steelix!"

"Slide to the right!"

Forrest twitched as my last second of thinking worked. Spyk tumble-rolled out of the way (and to the right) just as the earth started to crumble beneath his feet. I heard a few surprised gasps and cheers from above suddenly, and as I watched the steel type fly up near the balcony and wink at the crowd (omg, not again) I spotted Forrest's brother mouthing the words "kick his butt!" It gave me the confidence boost I needed, even if it was just a small gesture that meant nothing, making me think that I had a chance to win this battle.

"Criss cross!" I called to Spyk as Steelix landed and nearly sent an earthquake through the room.

"Stop that pichu!" Forrest retaliated with a roar from the other side of the field. Steelix thrust himself in our direction, and, as I commanded, Spyk zigzagged from left to right, using a quick attack to help him out. My clever little boy was clever. Moma's impressed, oh yes she is!

Then the thunder wave finally took effect. The steelix froze completely, shocks running through his body, and Spyk was coming to him at the speed of a bullet, not slowing down. I cheered him on, throwing my fists in the air when they actually collided. Spyk butted him hard in the head, but it barely affected his enemy, only making him flinch in surprise. I mentally swore in surprise, not expecting us to be so weak in comparison. I should've actually thought about our skills before taking on this gym.

"Criss—" I was about to repeat, just as the song entailed, but Forrest cut me off while the doubt was still fresh in my mind. His irritation got taken over by arrogance, understanding the same thing I had about our Pokémon's level differences.

"Iron tail, let's go!" Steelix roared in agreement as the tip of its tail started to glow with energy.

"Dodge it!" But Spyk was disoriented from throwing his tiny body against the giant steel type. Like a wingull flying face first into a glass door, he trembled with an aftershock, looked around, and could barely get his bearings straight. "Spyk!"

The steelix charged at us—but since he was so huge he didn't really have to move that much—and whipped his body around when he personally deemed he was close enough. His flashing tail took the spot of his front and it lashed out in our direction. I gaped as the attack knocked Spyk right off his feet, forcing him to fly past me at a speed I could barely register, and making him collide with the wall behind me. I snapped back from my horrified stupor and ran after him. Spyk barely let out a weak cry of pain before he closed his eyes and was instantly out cold. I picked him up from the floor gingerly and cradled him against me, finally choosing to call him back to his ball for a much needed rest (I think I'm going to need one too soon).

"And the winner is Forrest!" Yolanda yelled the obvious tidbit of information, holding an arm up in Forrest's direction.

"You did a good job, Spyk," I whispered to the Pokéball, unable to stop the disappointment from seeping through my voice. It wasn't his fault—it was mine for challenging the gym leader—but I still felt the urge to blame it all on him, that he hadn't been strong enough, that we should've trained more instead of pranking trainers, that we should've thought about it before issuing the challenge. I looked like such a fool now.

"Good battle!" A voice suddenly jolted me from my worry.

I started in surprise and turned to face the speaker. My expression turned solemn when I realized it was only Forrest. He was here to gloat, I see. "Sure. But I bet you say that to all the trainers you happen to pummel into the ground—excuse the pun." I still had some bite in me, for someone who just humiliated herself and her Pokémon by being cocky enough to believe that an electric type actually had a chance against a ground type. It can't be as bad as being instantly KO-d though, I have to admit.

He smirked and crossed his arms over his chest, looking super smug, "Well, you lasted longer than I expected, I'll give you that."

"Only because you were going easy on me." I returned, striking my own better-than-thou pose.

He opened his mouth to retort again, but his sister came skipping over, so he closed it and returned to his waiting steelix, leaving the two of us to converse. The two siblings had such an odd relationship with each other, and it was hard to understand just by looking at it like I was, as an outsider. Were they not allowed to talk to the same person together or what? I wanted to see some siblings squabbling, if you know what I mean. Wink wink.

"Cool battle Maia!" She grabbed my hand and yanked it towards her, forcing me to share a proper handshake with her, "I never saw a trainer use a song to battle!"

"It just came to me," I replied with a shrug, making sure to sound Mary Sue. Because that's what I happened to be right now, super cliché and fake-happy for losing. "So anyway," I lowered my voice, not wanting anyone else to actually hear what a noob I actually am, "this is my first time losing to a gym leader so do I have to pay or…?" Not that I wanted to. I had to buy myself some boating tickets after all, but I was still new to this whole gym leader battling thing.

She shook her head, the question not fazing her, "Nope. Other gym leaders, yes. But us, no."

That took me for a loop. "Why not?"

"Because losing money is often what disheartens most trainers," She said matter-of-factly, "So if you take that risk away, many more trainers would be willing to try out and start the League challenge." She nodded up to the crowd watching above, and I looked up in time to catch the wave of excitement as a new trainer started skipping down the stairs to my side of the field, to battle against Forrest too. "Money isn't the only thing that's hard for trainers to get, so we try to eliminate that option, being the first—well, not officially—gym."

I wanted to stay and chat though, so I kept the conversation going. "You guys are the first gym?"

She shook her head. "No, but since many rookies start near here, we're often labeled as the first gym of the league challenge, even if there's not really an order to get the badges."

"So I could get the Viridian badge first and it wouldn't matter?"

"Viridian is known for not taking it easy on trainers, going all out and not caring a bit about the outcome of the weaker Pokémon. That gym is known to be a power house, and is often recommended to battle last."

I nodded, the information sinking in. I was _not_ going to try my skills in that gym any time soon, that's for sure. If I can't even beat this Pewter gym, which happens to be the rookie gym, then I had no chance against the one from my own city of birth, a cruel palace guaranteed to bring pain.

Actually, now that I think about it, I didn't have to worry about it. I was going to Hoenn. It didn't matter what I learned about the gyms here or not, I was never coming back, unless to visit, which I doubt because my parents can be cruel pain in the butts. But speaking of family and royal pains in the butts, it's been a week (I haven't actually looked at a calendar lately so I might be wrong) that I haven't spoken with Alyson. I had to call her soon before she thinks I've been kidnapped or something. I kinda have been, but that's not really the point.

"Oh, and here's our gym's number," Yolanda passed me a tiny slip of paper—which also happened to be a business card up close—after a few seconds of searching through her pockets. "If you need tips, help, advice, just someone to talk to, cheats—" She whispered this one with a wink and added: "I know many ways to cheat the system, believe me." She returned to her normal tone of voice. "Anyway, I think that's it! You can also schedule another gym battle if you'd like, though as you probably guessed, we also take trainers first come first serve on certain days, so feel free to come by our gym again!" She smiled, not bright like Ivey or warm like that dude Roy. Just friendlily, if that's an actual word. I followed her gaze and realized why she was hinting at me to leave; the challenger finally arrived at us.

I blinked at the person. "Ivey? What are you doing here?"

"I should ask the same thing of you, Maia!" The girl replied with a grin, putting her hands on her hips with attitude. "And why did you let some random stranger baby sit Lily? I asked _you_ to do that!" And just because she could, Lily stepped away from her trainer's side and smacked me in the face with her leaf. It's also at this point that I realized that the reason it took them a while to get down the stairs was because of said aforementioned Pokémon.

"Well, I wanted to battle," I swatted the leaf away from my face as it came again, "And technically, you shouldn't have just dumped your Pokémon with me. I'm not trustworthy, as you can tell."

"Oh whatever," Ivey rolled her eyes and stuck out her hand to Yolanda for a shake, "I'll be challenging the gym leader next."

Forrest's sister nodded, shook her hand, and waved at her brother to get ready. The male nodded and withdrew his Pokémon, walking over to his side of the field and waiting. Yolanda yanked me by my sleeve when she realized I didn't plan to move and forced me to sit on the side bench as she silenced the crowd.

"Ladies and gentlemen!" She once again called, raising her arms above her head, "The one-on-one battle between Challenger Ivey and the Pewter City Gym Leader Forrest will now begin!"

Maybe it was because he wanted to rest his steelix, or because he wanted to take it easy, or because he knew he was going to lose, or even because he was confident enough to win, he called out a golem. Ivey couldn't help but grin and called her bayleef onto the field. The Pokémon strutted out, gave one glance at her opponent, harrumphed, and looked away haughtily. I raised my eyebrows at the attitude. I was about to call out to Ivey that the Pokémon was going to rebel and disobey her, but I shut my mouth when I heard her say "Crush him!" with a dark ominous gloom around her as lightning struck in the background (even though we were indoors and it obviously wasn't Spyk using the opportunity to scare people).

In less than two minutes (no joke), the battle was over and the poor golem's fear stricken face was beaten up until he fell unconscious. Forrest looked as frightened for his life as I was, which was saying something since he's the gym leader here.

"Awesome!" Ivey squealed, literally jumping for joy as Yolanda handed her the badge, some money, and a TM. She hugged her Pokémon a few times, twirled, danced, and did a bunch of embarrassing things. I really hoped I wouldn't do that when it would be my turn to win a badge. I would emotionally scar everyone for life.

"Okay, let's go," I looped my arm in hers and started dragging her out, feeling sour. Ivey won against the gym leader, but that squirtle trainer and I couldn't? And it was totally unfair that he had changed his Pokémon! If she had been facing that steelix like we had, she would've never won! Why would that gym leader take it easy on _Ivey_ of all people? Uggh!

"Bye bye!" Ivey waved to everyone over my shoulder as I stormed out, Lily trotting pompously behind us, proud of her easy victory. It still wasn't fair. Ivey turned to stare at me, "Are you jealous that I won?"

"Well, yeah!" I hissed once we were outside, instantly letting go of her and throwing my arms out. "That steelix that I faced was so much stronger than that golem and—"

"He would've been pummelled too." She replied nonchalantly, putting a hand on her hip. "Give me _some_ credit Maia! Did you not see my Pokémon? They're all badasses! I've trained them to be strong and great! I may not be doing the League Challenge like I know for a fact that you will, but I do go against gyms and collect random badges for fun!"

"Can you even do that? Don't you have to sign up to be allowed to battle—" I cut myself off, realizing that I was wrong. I had just faced the gym without even bothering to sign up or make an appointment or even thinking about doing the League Challenge. It had been first come first serve.

"You had to before, twenty years ago, when there was a mass outbreak of criminal activity. Not many trainers could be trusted to train Pokémon and battle against gym leaders, since most tried to cause a rebellion like that, so the rules were put up. You had a special gym-access card that only let one trainer pass at a time. I actually like that system, hearing about it now, but witnesses say it wasn't fun at all, that it was like going through airport security. I guess I should be happy that everything went back down a notch to this, where just about anyone can be a trainer and battle gyms," She shrugged like it wasn't a big deal. I just blinked at the sudden wave of information, having a hard time wrapping my mind around the criminal activity part. Was she talking about that time in modern history where Team Plasma and Cipher banded together and tried to merge Unova and Orre together into a new region? Or was it when Team Rocket's Giovanni tried to take over Team Plasma and got his butt kicked instead? Those had to be the craziest event I've heard about. It sounds pretty farfetched and crazy, so I'm really glad I wasn't born at that time and had the ability to tell if it was true or not. "Wish I'd been there though. I love revolutions," When she caught my disbelief-raised eyebrows, she backtracked, "N-not from the bad guys! I just mean that I would love to lead a group and get people inspired and cause a riot!"

"That doesn't surprise me,"

"Didn't think so,"

"Oh hey, where's Samantha?" I asked, realizing that she was the one person that Ivey had ditched me for, and seeing that she wasn't around was kind of suspicious.

Ivey shrugged and pulled out a Pokéball from her pocket, recalling Lily as we had a silent agreement to head for the Pokémon Center to heal our Pokémon. "She got a call from her brother. Apparently he got lost in Diglett's Cave again."

My jaw dropped and I stared at her long and hard, not believing what she just said. "You're kidding."

"Nope!"

"You're an idiot!" I grabbed her by the shoulders and started shaking her wildly, knowing it wasn't really the nicest thing to do to get my message through. "If she goes in Diglett's Cave, then she can easily lead us through it as she searches for her brother!"

Her blue eyes got wide and her mouth dropped like mine had a few minutes ago. "Oh my Arceus! You're right! She knows the entire place by butt!"

"…you mean heart."

"…whatever!

It took us all of the next three seconds to scream "AFTER HER!" and bolt to the Pokémon Center, get our stuff, heal our Pokémon as fast as we possibly can (we tried to get Nurse Joy to toss them to us when she was done so we could catch and run out at the same time, but she scolded us instead), and find Diglett's Cave. Obviously, because we're idiots, we didn't actually know where it was, and took twenty minutes running through town and random patches of grass to find it. When we finally _did_ find it, we just wanted to drop dead on the ground and crawl back in bed.

"There's no way we can catch up to her now,"

"Don't worry! I'm sure she's just on the other side of those stairs!"

I stopped dead in my tracks, "What stairs?"

"Those." She pointed.

My eyebrows shot up in surprise. I didn't really think stairs could exist in caves, but hey, there was no way that I'd imagined them up. We slowly made our way down, keeping our eyes peeled in the semi-darkness. We literally spotted thousands of digletts passing and poking their heads through the ground to stare at us curiously. We talked to a few near the entrance—well, Lily did and Ivey translated—and some decided it was cool to hang with us. We kept along the wall as we went, the little digletts trailing behind us like little ducklett and sometimes urging us to go in certain directions. I hadn't let out Spyk from his Pokémon ever since he had fainted, not really sure what to say to him now that I had let him down with the gym battle. I wouldn't be surprised if he hated me now. Though having his Pokéball with me, I found it was an odd concept to be the one empowered in our relationship. I mean, I was dragging him all over the place and he had no say in it. What if he wanted to go elsewhere, but because of my idiocy, I led us somewhere completely unreasonable? Like this cave for instance, type wise, I mean?

"Let's take a break!" Ivey pulled her bag off her shoulder and plopped down on an oddly comfortable looking rock that the diglett had shown us to. When we patted their heads in thanks, they wiggled around happily and blushed, watching us in what seemed like admiration. The cave was no longer scary to me, and the digletts were really nice to let us pass through their home like this. They were friendly too, which put my mind at ease. Spyk and I would have no chance against a colony of pissed off ground types. Though I think Ivey could. Remind me to stay on her good side.

"We might have to sleep here," The girl sighed, pulling her phone from her pocket, "it might not feel like it since the trail so far has been pretty great and fun due to these super cute diglett—" She shot the pokémon a charming grin. The blushed and bopped around in their little ground holes faster. "—but we need our rest if we're going to keep going. You can have the first watch—" I gave her a sour look. She pretended not to see it. "—and Lily and I'll take the next one. In about four hours."

"We haven't found Samantha yet though," I reminded her as she started digging through her backpack. "We should keep going for a bit longer. She's getting further away from us as we speak."

"I doubt it!" Ivey shoved her phone in my face, the bright sudden light making me flinch and squint my eyes to adjust to it. "Look, it's already 10 PM! If she had any common sense, she'd be looking around for shelter or somewhere to sleep."

"You think she already found her way out?"

"We wasted most of the morning battling and running around, so she'd be hours ahead of us by now. This cave takes about three days or more to get through, two if you don't stop and you walk pretty fast or even run." She shook her head and magically pulled out a blanket. "No matter what we do, we can't catch up to her. Remember, she had to find her lost brother, and that motive is more than enough to get her to run through a cave in a hurry."

"I guess you're right," I mumbled back, pulling my backpack off my shoulders and dropping it at my feet. I watched as Ivey curled herself in her blanket and slid off her rock, using it as a headrest instead. I dropped my chin in my hand, instantly bored now that my companion and her pokémon were going to bed. I wasn't going to risk letting out Spyk from his pokéball until I was sure we were both over the gym incident. It was my fault we had lost, so I didn't deserve to be in his presence or have his help. He'd have to stay in there just a bit longer. When we get to the next Pokémon Center, then I'll let him out. I just need more time.

The diglett were leaving, I realised a second too late. Now that we were safely in one spot and not doing much of anything, the little ground types found us boring and left. Or maybe they only stayed because they easily fell head over heels in love with Ivey and wanted her attention. Now that she's asleep, there would be no reason for them to stay with _me_ of all people. That actually made way more sense than I'd hoped.

Now I was all alone though, I had to figure out a way to keep myself busy for four long hours. I got ready to call my sister and have another one of our destined phone-chats, but then I realized that I had to be quiet for Ivey and changed my mind. I didn't want to move away from our spot and risk getting lost and, a bonus, my phone didn't even have any service bars in here. I'm so impressed with technology right now. Uggh! There had to be something I can do to keep myself entertained!

I thought about making a fire of some sort to keep us warm, but as our body heat reflected off the walls of the cave, we were fine. Ivey wasn't shivering or anything—I'm surprised she fell asleep so easily considering we're in a cave—and I felt like peeling off my jacket, but thankfully kept it on just in case. I don't know how I could've made a fire anyway; there weren't any branches or logs or even paper around here. I have some emergency matches for cases like there—Spyk isn't a fire type, so I had to remind myself that warmth was a necessary thing when I was throwing them in my bag—but it seemed wasteful now that I was sitting here doing nothing.

I pulled out my flashlight (now that night was pulling in, the semi-light in the cave was fading away to darkness) and traced sideways eight infinity symbols on the wall, pouting. This was going to be longer than I thought it would. Four hours. I knew I should've packed my portable game player—heck, even some cards would've sufficed!

I drifted to my personal thoughts. I had a pretty rough first few days. Trainers ended up chasing me around for battles, Ivey begged me to travel with her, I got a hat from a random stranger—which I carefully packed in my bag so I didn't lose it—and battled against a gym I had no chance against. That's got to be some crazy accomplishment, if any. Maybe I can get the most-dangerous-person-to-be-with award? That would be neat! Not that I'm gloating or something. Danger is something to avoid at all costs, but I think it would be fun to get into a little bit more trouble while I'm still in Kanto. But it's not like I can just shout and something crazy would come running at me. That's kind of impossible.

"Hey!" Someone cried when I started waving my flashlight around in random directions, trying to find something interesting that could be seen on the wall. I started considering writing something on it, but I had realized that I had nothing to write with and started a mental checklist for the next time I chose to go shopping. "There's someone over there! Look!"

Someone else said something, but it was too far for me to decipher. I heard the shuffling of feet as it came louder. I waited patiently, keeping the spot near me alighted to help them with their path towards me. I spotted their feet before their bodies stretched into view, and I craned my neck up to look at the trio above me. I instantly felt uncomfortable when I realized they were all guys.

"Can I help you?" I inched back when they got too close.

"Yeah!" The tallest one jumped at the chance to speak. "We're looking for the exit, but we can't find it."

"It's that way…" I pointed back with my flashlight to the route where I came from with Ivey. Speaking of which, it doesn't look like they've noticed her yet. I expertly kept my flashlight away from her direction to avoid troubling her. "Are the digletts sleeping?"

"Digletts? Why?" The leader was speaking again, the other two staying silent, sending each other odd looks instead. It was a bit unnerving.

I tilted my head to the side, wondering how come the diglett weren't leading them like they had with us. Then I realized that the reason that they were friendly was because of Lily, and the trio had no Pokémon outside of their pokéballs. "If you call out a pokémon, the digletts will come out and great you, and even lead the way out if you're nice. Our pokémon are kinda like mediators."

"Jul?" The main talker guy turned to look over his shoulder at the two guys, addressing the one that was rather to the right and hidden from my sights.

The guy nodded, pulled out a pokéball from his belt, and called out his pokémon. After the bright flash of red light faded and we could all see again, a dull gray body was standing next to him. It had small arms, puffy dark pink pants and a matching hat, with yellow highlights here and there. "Medicham!" It chirped, raising a paw (if I can call it that) in greeting.

"A Hoenn pokemon!" I gasped, on the verge of squealing my face off. This had to be a dream! I crawled closer, still on the floor, and clasped the creature's hand in mine. It looked incredibly creeped out, as did the guys. "It's so cool!"

"…thanks, I think?" Its owner mumbled (I think the guy called him Jul?), looking as uncomfortable as I was before. Before I had a chance to retort though, something rumbled through the ground nearby and a little head popped out. I heard a few more along with "Diglett!" cries echoing as they appeared as well, circling us. I let go of the fighting pokémon and flashed my light at the ground types, and the guys nearly jumped when they noticed the dozens of digletts surrounding us.

"Hello again, diglett!" I greeted the nearest one and it bobbed its head happily at me. I patted its head and it cooed. I looked back up at my late night visitors. "See! They showed up!"

"W-what do we do?" Jul squeaked, squatting to hide behind his pokémon. I resisted shaking my head at him. He must be a scaredy cat.

"You just—" I attempted to say, finally pushing myself to me feet.

Another bright red light flashed temporally blinded us and I rubbed my eyes before turning to stare at the newcomer. It was a large creature, almost the same height as its trainer (the one that hadn't spoken yet) and it was this odd light blue colour. It was devoid of much distinctive details, but there was a purple pattern on his back that went down to its large blue tail fin. "Quag!"

I felt the air pressure thicken as its large mouth open for an intake of breath. I instantly knew an attack was going to be on its way.

"Stop!" I pounced on the pokémon's owner, but it was too late. I felt water splash on me as it hit the walls and reached for every crevice of this place as possible. I was pale in horror as I laid my flashlight's light on the continuously flowing water and the mess it was creating, it being sprayed in every direction: the ceiling, walls, floor, everything! The ground was becoming moist and sticky and muddy, the walls were starting to shake, and fainted digletts were being swept up and away. This was a very sudden and horrible turn of events!

"Lily, stop that water with magical leaf!" The voice of my very faithful not-sleeping-anymore partner cried as I heard her feet _squish_ over in my direction, flashlight soon snapping on as she tried to find me. "Maia!"

"Over here, Ivey!" I waved my own flashlight around, purposely shoving the quagsire owner as I did it.

"What happened while I was sleeping?" She cried, leaping into my arms. I wrapped my arms around her too as my insides squirmed uncomfortably, scared with what's going on. I just needed someone to cling to for a few seconds and I'd be fine. But right now, this was really freaky.

"These guys showed up and I told them to call out a Pokémon for the diglett to show up and show them out, but the next thing I know there's water everywhere!" I waved an arm out to the guys around us. The first one who liked to talk was scolding the quagsire trainer, and the medicham was hovering like a badass over the mess, its trainer clinging to him like a baby. A little bit further, you could see Lily growling and hissing at a knocked over quagsire, who looked like it also wanted to pummel the grass pokémon right into the ground.

Another rumble shook the cave, the ground shifting and the walls grumbling. Without having to look at each other or even just speak, we all knew what was happening. Or what was about to happen anyway.

"It's caving in!" Sir Talks A Lot yelled, and Ivey screamed and clung to me tighter when it finally registered in her mind. If she kept clinging to me like this, I swear I was going to be claustrophobic for the rest of my young life.

"We have to get out of here!" Jul screamed above us.

"Which way is the fastest way out?" I shoved Ivey aside just as a part of the ceiling decided to collapse and fall on us. I managed to move aside as well and it missed me, though not without dirtying my clothes to the brink of never coming back to its original state. I was absolutely covered with mud and dirt now.

"This way!" The leader of the boys bolted back in the direction they came from, waving an arm. I was happy we were heading towards Vermilion and that I would be one step closer to reaching Hoenn, but this wasn't the way I was hoping it would happen. I ran back to Ivey and I's camp and yanked my backpack onto my shoulders, grabbing Ivey's stuff while I was at it. I tossed it to her when I saw her and she wrapped herself back into the safety of her blanket the second she had it.

"Come on, Lily!" Without wasting a second, we were running. Running in a direction we didn't know, running underground at a place we had no idea lead, running for salvation that was one a day away. This wasn't going to end well, we all knew it. I glanced at the owner of the quagsire when he passed me—damn his long legs—and I didn't feel a single wave or regret or remorse coming from him. He was completely unfazed by this. Doesn't he realize that he's the one destroying the only way for non-flying trainers to reach the other side of Kanto?

As soon as I started thinking dangerous things about him, he turned sharply in my direction and glared. Hard. I gulped and tried to send it back, but it was hard considering his look was the epitome of evil itself. I was nearly pissing myself just looking at him. He sneered at me when he caught my feeble attempt and sped up to run next to Jul. For the while, I gave freaky looks at his back, though I could tell that every time he was looking over his shoulder to check on us was just to silence my face. I stuck out my tongue out at him immaturely and he rolled his eyes. When my legs started shaking and feeling sore, he stopped running abruptly, and I didn't see it coming so I accidentally slammed my face into him. That must've been revenge for all the faces I did at him, I realized as I rubbed my poor nose.

There was a final heavy nearby quake, and when I glanced back, our route was completely obliterated. Rocks and dirt and mud littered the entire road we were just in, reaching up to the ceiling and closing it tight. There was no way we could ever return to that path. We were now literally facing a dead end.

"Ah man!" Leader (that's what I'm calling him now, until proven otherwise) dropped to the new dry ground, letting out a moan and using his hands to cover his face. "There goes our chance of meeting the professor!" He was trying to keep the conversation light though. "I guess we're going to have to call him?"

"I-is this what they call an erosion?" Jul was still clinging to his medicham, even if they were still on the ground. The pokémon was patting his back and trying to soothe him though. No one answered him, because not a second later, I was all up in the water trainer's face (speaking of said person, he just called back his quagsire).

"Why would you do that?" I hissed, feeling the urge to stab him in the chest. "How are you supposed to travel? How are we supposed to travel? How is _anyone_ supposed to travel? Everyone uses this cavern! How can you just destroy it?" He wasn't looking at me though. He was just looking to the side nonchalantly and it was pissing me off. "What? You hate digletts _that much_?"

"Stop it, it's useless." Leader cut in, waving a hand at me although he was still just lying down on the ground like an idiot. "Andrew does this anti-hero thing that's meant to look bad when it actually saves our lives." I blinked and looked back at the Andrew fellow, but he was still just looking so nonchalant and passive. He was still making me angry. "So there must've been something at the end of the cave that made him react that way." There was a shrug. "It must've been something pretty big to cave in this place though."

I narrowed my eyes at him. "And he can't say this himself?"

Leader plopped himself on his elbows and gave Andrew a questioning look.

He nodded back.

Leader gave me a meaningful look. "He's mute."

My look fell. "Oh." How do you even handle a mute? How do you know what he needs?

Andrew was glaring at me again. It was weird, since most of the time it seemed as if he was reacting to my inner thoughts. Maybe he's a mind reading vampire like in those weird knock off books. Oh no, what if that's true? I have to test it! Hey, Andrew, if you can hear this, laugh or something!

Andrew smirked and then scoffed mockingly in my direction.

I turned and gave Ivey a horrified look. "He's a mind reader!"

Leader snickered into the palm of his hand.

Ivey just looked at me as if I was growing two heads.

"I-I'm not joking!" I hissed back, pointing my flashlight wildly at the man.

"You have no proof!" She hissed back.

"Fine!" I whirled to stare evenly back into Andrew's eyes. He was still smirking his face off. "From one to ten—" He only has ten fingers to prove it. "—what number am I thinking of?"

I was thinking of the number two.

He held up two fingers.

"SEE?"

She shook her head at me. "Still not good enough."

"Oh come on!"

Leader waved at her to let it go. "Give it a rest, Ivey."

The girl froze. "H-how did you know my name?"

"Maia thinks of your name when she talks to you—" He slapped a hand over his own mouth, realizing what he just said. "—oops."

"Maia!" Ivey was clinging to me again. "This is freaking me out! They really can read minds!"

She changed opinions pretty fast. "Calm down, Ivey…" I was getting pretty spooked myself, but I wasn't going to admit that. I had to be strong in this situation or we'd both burst into tears. "They're not psychic… they can't read our minds…"

"You don't really believe that, now do you, Maia?" Jul started floating up in midair, hovering closer in our direction. We cowered away, huddling by the cave wall. The other lifted their hands and did curling motions with their fingers, reminding me of when people would pretend to be banettes for Halloween, and crept closer as well. Ivey was squealing and hiding her face in my arm, and I swear I was losing my mind with what was going on.

Just as one of their hands was an inch away from touching my face, they stopped completely.

"Just kidding!" Leader chirped, backing up and laughing at the two of us. "We're not psychic!"

Ivey sighed in relief.

Too bad I was seething.

"Let me beat him up!" I growled when she held me back by my shirt, surprised by how strong she actually was. "That was cruel and mean and they deserve punishment!"

"C-calm down…" Jul was looking as if he was seriously reconsidering having teased us, catching the evil look I sent at him. He gulped in fear and tried again. "M-medicham was the one who read your mind. It held up fingers behind your backs." He mentioned to the Pokémon next to him, who was waving its hands up and down, having fun moving his trainer in crazy directions in midair. It couldn't be good for him since he was slowly starting to turn green.

"That doesn't explain how you know my name!" Ivey hissed like a skitty, hiding behind me. It looks like she wasn't going to trust them any time soon. That's just great, especially since we have to deal with these boys for another day or so in this cave. I could feel the beautiful friendship forming—full of tears and romance and bloodshed.

"Maia said it when the cave was collapsing." Leader cackled, not even fazed when I turned my look on him. He must be immune to people hating on him for doing stuff like this. The meanie!

With a yank that threw Ivey off balance, I jerked away from her grip and pounced on the unsuspecting Leader. He jolted in surprise and I pushed him against the wall, pulling back my arm for a hit. I froze when I felt the power of simply pushing him against the rocks reverberate in the walls and floors and just about everywhere else. The sound of rumbling was slowly growing again, and it was coming from all around us.

"Because of the last cave-in, the cave is sensitive to anything now!" Leader realized, grabbing the back of my head with his hand and shoving it to his chest as he spun us around. He took my previous spot and braced himself against the falling debris, moving his arms to hold himself against the unsteady wall. I dropped dead to the floor under him.

Everything started collapsing once again.

And this time, I wasn't as lucky as I was with the first one.


	6. 006: Hope Stays Strong

_Hello everyone! It's been a while since I updated any of my stories so I'm slowly working on them one by one... and to make it up for not writing as much, I tried to make my chapters longer. This one is about 14-15 pages long. Of course, there's a lot of group talking, but hey, it works well._

_I also tried to make it serious, but with some silly sections to make it less boring and paranoic. (Is that a word?) I also know that Spyk hasn't showed up at all in this episode, but worry not! He's going to be the main focus of the next one, I promise you!_

_I also did a new summary. Does it work better? Worse? No comment?_

_I also realized that the previous five chapters have all writing centered. Is that normal? I don't remember doing it that way, so has ff changed it, or have I been blind this entire time? (I personally don't like centered texts so this is freaking me out.)_

_R&R please and thank you! Feedback is appreciated!_

* * *

_**The Blatant Disregard of a Pokémon Trainer v2**_

* * *

_Mother a contest champion. Father a famous photographer. What will she do to get away from all the criticizing and all the skepticism? Join the rebellion! Become a Pokémon trainer._

Everyone calls me a danger magnet—but it's not my fault. I try to stay out of trouble all the time, and yet it still manages to find and catch me. It doesn't help that my sister is somehow related to the Rocket mayhem that's been whirling around, nor does it help that my closest friend started to act suspicious. With ties made, others broken, and old scars struck, who am I anymore?

* * *

**_006. Hope stays strong._**

* * *

When I woke up from that horrible mess, I heard my name being called.

"Maia!"

Okay, that was Ivey. I knew that because she's that annoying person who wanted to travel with me. But why did she sound so distressed? Had something happened?

I forced my eyes open, trying to move and stretch my body while I was at it, but something was holding me back. I felt extremely fatigued and heavy at my current moment, my arms as if they'd just worked an entire day swimming its muscles out. I couldn't do much with my face either; it was in a lot of pain. I could feel my hand twitch though, and I tried to move or flail it, but something was blocking my path again. I gave whatever it was a small shove, and I heard the sound of rolling and clacking objects as it shifted away.

That's when I remembered what happened. I was in a cave, watching over Ivey who was sleeping, when these guys came to me for directions, so I gave it. They called out their Pokémon at my demand, and then they flooded the place, causing a cave-in. We ran away in time, the guys teased us, and in anger, I caused another cave-in.

Well that wasn't good at all.

I must be still in the rubble, I realized when my eyes could only register darkness and dust, closing them again really fast afterwards. I resisted the urge to cough, realizing that the barrier over me must be the rocks that had fallen on me. How in the world am I even still alive after a cave in? There were so many cases of death that it all just seems like some crazy dream. I'm never lucky, so why am I still alive?

"Maia!" There's Ivey again. She still sounded the same as usual.

I closed my eyes.

* * *

When I came to again, there weren't any rocks covering me and the air was fresh.

I tried to take the biggest breaths of air possible, but that only caused me to cough my lungs out.

"Maia!"

There's Ivey, still calling me. She sounded relieved though, unlike before.

My body was still sending me crazy signals of pain and thirst and hunger and the need to urinate. I just wanted to go back to sleep though, but I couldn't when I just joke woke up coughing hard. I wondered if I had gotten sick or something, but then if I had, why wasn't my nose running? My body fell horrible though, and I was sure that was the first sign of an illness. I tried to push myself up with my arm, but it shook weakly under my weight and I dropped back down on the bed with a flop. I could already tell this was going to be a horrible morning.

"I'm going to go call the nurse!" I heard Ivey's heels clack away from the room, closing the door behind her as she left. Nurse? Oh great, what did I do this time to land myself in a hospital?

I tried to open my eyes to see if it was true, but they immediately hissed at the bright white and closed on themselves again. A low buzzing noise was creeping in my ears and I deftly wondered who'd left a venonat in my room. I turned in the direction it was coming from and peered open my eyes, trying to see what it really was. I caught a variety of colours and images coming from a somewhat small screen in the corner of the room, facing me diagonally. It was a television, I realized. Ivey must've been watching it.

_"…five young trainers were found in Diglett's cave early yesterday morning, two of them, a young couple, caught under a pile of rocks as the path had an unexpected cave-in..." _

Unexpected was right. I closed my eyes against the television. I did not want to hear the news right now. I've had a bad enough morning as it is.

_"…here's one of the five trainers, Ivey…"_

My eyes snapped open in alarm. Ivey went on television? Why didn't she tell me?!

The Ivey on the television looked like she hadn't showered in a week, plus she was almost completely covered with dirt, even if she was still wrapped in her blanket. This must've been just as she'd left Diglett's Cave_. "…yes. The girl who got caught under the rocks is my best friend. We were heading to Vermilion to catch a boat to visit some family members, but our trip stopped short when Diglett's Cave caved in on us so suddenly."_

_"What about the boys? Do you know them?" _The reported asked, quickly pushing his microphone back in Ivey's face afterwards.

_"Sortof, we met them along the way. Since we were heading in the same direction, we decided to travel together."_

_"And what about the unexpected cave-in? What do you think happened for the cave to suddenly collapse on your group?"_

She laughed._ "I'm not a geologist or anything, so I really wouldn't know anything about that."_

_"But it was your group that destroyed Digett's Cave, right?"_

I saw one of Ivey's eyebrow twitch, but her smile stayed intact._ "I don't know how you could've assumed that. We were resting in a small crevice, and when it started, we ran for our lives. Not all of us were lucky though. But still, none of us caused it."_

_"Are you absolutely sure about that? Evidence shows signs of a Pokémon battle happening." _

Ivey paled at this and she looked horrified behind her still-there smile._ "W-what?"_

The news reporter had a smile on, but you could tell he was pretty confident that he had won this round over Ivey_. "Water, mud, puddle, grass, and large petals that could only be created by pokémon. You guys had a battle, didn't you?"_

Ivey scowled at the man, no longer caring about staying pleasant on camera._ "Our group got along pretty well, thank you very much. There was no need for us to start a battle in the middle of Diglett's Cave!"_

_"But if I'm correct, Ivey, you hold in your possession many grass types—"_

The television was abruptly shut off. I turned to the perpetrator and found Ivey with the remote and the nurse next to her reaching down at the end of my bed to press a few buttons. When she was done, the head of my bed started lifting up until I was into a semi-resting-semi-sitting position. This forced me to be able to feel the muscles in my legs, butt, and abdomen as they adjusted with me, and it did not feel great. After a few blood pressure checks from the nurse, some water, a slice of bread, and an examination from the doctor, they said I was free to go whenever I felt good enough to walk.

As soon as they were gone, I faced Ivey. "Why did you lie to that reporter?"

"I had to!" She hissed back, voice low to avoid rousing suspicion for anyone that would be passing our room. "You don't want to go to jail, now do you?"

I jolted in surprised. "Jail? Why would I have gone to jail?"

"The cave-ins! If they started naturally or by wild pokémon, we're fine. But that's not what happened." She tossed me my bag when I asked for it. "Andrew caused the first one, and you the second one."

"I-it was an accident! I didn't think it was going to cause another cave-in!" I pulled myself out of bed and started searching through my stuff. My legs shook a little for not being used for a while, but they eventually straightened out. My muscles weren't happy with me though.

"Your flashlight got destroyed, by the way." She told me quickly before continuing on with the main point of conversation. "_I_ know that it's an accident, but no one else cares about that! All they care about is putting the blame of what happened to Leon against you!"

I'm assuming here that Leon is Leader. "What happened to Leon?"

_He took my previous spot and braced himself against the falling debris, moving his arms to hold himself against the unsteady wall. I dropped dead to the floor under him._

_Everything started collapsing once again._

Ivey looked away. "The doctors won't affirm anything until he's woken up. He's been in a coma from the second they found him. His body was in a horrible state."

Here comes the guilt. "So the blame's all on me, huh?"

Ivey nodded reluctantly. "It's getting pretty controversial though. Some say that you caused it, others that he caused it, others that he was trying to protect you, others that the rest of us wanted to get rid of you two, etcetera. It's pretty hard listening to it all."

"They're right about the protecting part." When I found nothing wrong with the contents of my bag (except more of my snacks vanishing via Ivey's stomach), I started preparing an outfit to leave this place with. I wasn't going to wear these stupid butt-showing hospital gowns outside of this room, that's for sure. "And that I caused the cave-ins."

Ivey didn't respond and let me sneak away to the bathroom to change (of course, it took me a while since my legs were still weak and I had to cling to the wall the entire time). When I came back, I found her rummaging through my snacks again. She didn't even bother trying to look guilty or have that deerling-in-headlights look when I plopped back down on my bed and swatted her hands away. She refused to let go of my food.

"Why don't you try to look good, Maia?" She asked through bites, putting her free hand (the other still clutching my bag) in front of her mouth to stop food-debris from flying out. "You're a girl, and yet you wear unfashionable clothes that are too big for you."

"I don't need to look good." I muttered crossly, wondering why she would want to talk about that of all things at this time. I yanked my bag from her hands and zipped it shut. She pouted at me but didn't argue. "I need to wear something practical so that I can last longer in the wild. And stop eating all my food."

"Being a pokémon trainer is not just about being in the wild, you know." She returned, ignoring the part about my snacks. I really hoped she wasn't going to continue doing that, or else I'm going to have to leave my bag empty of emergency foods just in case she'd go back in it, and I don't want that. Emergency food is emergency food, for goodness sake.

"Most of the time, yes. I'm going to be training my face off soon."

She grabbed my arm and sent me a stern look from under her golden bangs. "Excuse you, the doctor told you to take it easy. Your body was in a state of exhaustion when they found you. You needed rest, and days to stop and relax. Going into a cave the day after our great adventure in the forest wasn't such a good idea at the time, especially since I'm the only one who got to relax and have some sleep."

I yanked my arm free. "So we've been walking and running and doing too much. It doesn't matter to me. I can relax later, when I'm done."

She got a glint in her eye. "Done what?"

Good thing I caught her look. I heaved my bag on my shoulders and swatted her hands away from me as she tried to get into it again. I'll be protecting my food from now on. "Nothing important. Let's go."

"At least let me make your hair presentable!" She cried suddenly.

I stared at her in surprise. Presentable for what? "E-excuse me?"

"Please! I'll stop bugging you for the rest of today!"

That actually looked like a good idea right about now. And I also wanted to avoid future arguments with her, considering she just saved my social life's butt. "…fine."

An hour later found me finally leaving the hospital with my uneven hair out of its ponytail and curled and shiny, my face dusted with makeup, and a miniskirt instead of my favorite jeans. Thank Arceus she let me keep my hoodie and sneakers on. I don't even want to imagine how I'd look like in the skimpy top she had planned for me. And, oh Arceus, don't get me started on the heels.

"I thought it was only hair!" I hissed at her, but she wasn't listening. She was twirling around my person and taking pictures with her phone, muttering something about a "successful makeover" and letting all her friends know about it. I was going to pummel her soon if she didn't stop it. "Ivey!"

"Relax, Maia! This is so much better!"

"I feel like an idiot." I grumbled, tugging the skirt further down.

Ivey swatted my hands away. "Stop that! You look cute!" And then she smacked my butt for further emphasis. I shrieked and covered my butt, face red from both embarrassment and frustration. "Look at you! So innocent! It's like you never had someone touch your butt before!"

"W-what's wrong with you?" I whispered harshly, looking around to see if anyone had seen. From what it looked like, the only attention that was brought was because of my scream.

"Nothing's wrong with me!" She laughed, wrapping an arm my shoulders.

I shoved her away as hard as possible. "Yes there is!" I huffed, blowing at my hair that went to stick in my newly acquired lip gloss. It had to be the sixth time this happened to me today. How did Ivey handle it without looking like a fool? "Anyway, let's just get to the docks and leave."

She furrowed her eyebrows at me, "What are you talking about?"

I slammed my hands on my hips. "Boats. Hoenn. The plan, remember?"

A giggle broke on her lips. "Oh! Pfft! You're so silly! How can we get to the docks when we're not even in Vermilion city?"

My blood ran cold. Have I been kidnapped while I was out of it? "We're not?"

"We're in Celadon city! The biggest town with best shopping center!" She spread her arms wide and spun circles in the middle of the streets. I had to duck to avoid getting hit. A few pedestrians weren't so lucky. I apologized to them in her place.

It took me a while to register that we weren't where we were supposed to be. "Doesn't Diglett Cave finish in Vermilion City?"

"Yes, but the cave collapsed in the middle of route 16 and emergency troops had to come save your hide from there. That road is off limits now, until they can fix the cave or create an alternate crossing route to Pewter city."

"That's crazy," I watched as Ivey skipped ahead and took a seat at the benches surrounding the fountain. I didn't bother following her example, crossing my arms as I stood in front of her. "Speaking of which, what happened to the guys?"

I spotted yet another evil glint in her blue eyes. She was getting too many of those for comfort. She leaned forward, sending me a worrisome grin. "You'll see." And then she jumped back up to her feet, grabbed my wrist, and dragged me to the stores.

A long shopping trip inside the huge department store later, we were on the roof of said building. And although Ivey did all the shopping (I didn't buy anything, even if she insisted), I had to carry most of the bags. I dropped them in a corner along with the rest of our stuff when I realized we were going to hang up here for a while. With a sigh, I gave Ivey a defeated look, just wanting to rest. Wasn't she the one who insisted I take it easy? Why would she make me do all the hard labour?

The space of the roof was wide, open, and loomed all over the city. We could see every little detail of Celadon city and we could even spot Lavender town's Pokémon Tower from over the trees—it was _that_ tall. There were about five vending machines and a lot of picnic tables on this rooftop. I spotted a few spots where the tiles looked worn out, tired, almost destroyed, with faded blue and red mark on two sides of the mess. I had to assume that it was an impromptu battle field. Ignoring the scenery, I focused on the people around us. There were trainers, lots of them at that.

"Everyone, this is Maia!" Ivey introduced with the loudest yell I ever heard coming from her. I got a few cheers and hellos in response, but nothing really else. Ivey proceeded to drag me again to the corner where there was approximately five guys throwing items off the building. A scowl immediately threw itself to my face. How come _they_ got to have all the fun and I had to carry _shopping_ _bags_ of all things?

"Julian! Andrew! We're here!" Ivey said the obvious, tapping both boys on the shoulder. Now that there was daylight and we were no longer in a dark cavern, I could tell how they looked and spot nearly all of their details. Julian—I know him by his nickname, Jul—was a short boy around his late teens, with short floppy brown hair. He really did seem like the self-conscious and cautious type, now that I had a good look at him. He nodded at us timidly, rubbing his hoodie-covered arm and looking away quickly afterwards.

Andrew simply raised his hand in greeting, still looking as apathetic as he could possibly be. This guy was older, looking to be in his twenties, I think, and yet he was still pretty handsome. It was a shame for his lack of voice. He had long black hair pulled back behind his ears and matching eyes. Both of them looked like siblings, or related of some sort. They had the same nose and shape of chin, though Andrew's was more defined, being older. It was odd having both of them here like this and seeing them side by side and making the comparison. I was kind of hoping they'd be closer to my age. Not that it was much of a big deal. I didn't need to concentrate on love when I'd be moving away to Hoenn in a few days, and there'd be no chance of me keeping in contact with them, but I still wanted to hope. I made sure to get my hopes up before addressing them again.

"Um!" I grabbed their attention just as they were about to turn and continue what they were doing. I checked to make sure no one was listening in our conversation before leaning closer and whispering to them. "I wanted to apologize for what happened." Andrew's eyes narrowed while Jul's widened. It was yet another odd mix coming from those two. "I didn't mean to cause all that destruction for you all. I'm really sorry about what happened to Leon. It wasn't my intention." Andrew silently huffed and turned around, storming to his other friends. I turned my focus on the last one of their trio. "I'm sorry."

"I-it's okay." Jul looked kind of scared, and checked over his shoulder at Andrew a few times before his eyes flickered to the other trainers around us. He must be in on the whole don't-tell-the-world-the-truth deal with Ivey. "I feel like I should apologize too. You two did nothing wrong. We came to you for directions and it lead to this. Plus, we provoked you afterwards. I'm the one who's sorry!" And he bowed to us, nearly knocking his head into ours. If he had, I bet he'd start on another wave of sorries, not that I'd mind that. It was a little fun getting apologies for once instead of the other way around.

I looked at Ivey, wondering why she was being so silent. She usually would be the one talking her head off and laughing and giggling. That's when I realized that she was texting someone on her phone. When she noticed I was looking at her, she waved at us goodbye and turned around, heading to another group. I suddenly felt like I've just been ditched. Well, I was, but that's not what I meant. I watched her until I was sure she was fine with her new friends. I hoped this ditching thing of hers wasn't consistent. She still owed me for eating all my snacks!

"Where is she going? Did I say something wrong?" Jul looked worried out of his mind, voicing my thoughts.

I felt the need to cover for her, even if I had no idea why she would leave me here of all places. I waved away his worry. "Nah, she's just meeting with a few friends of hers."

He didn't look too convinced. "Okay…"

"Yup." I inched to the side and glanced behind him at the rest of the group of five people. "So what are you guys doing?"

He followed my example and looked over his shoulder, observing the three. "They're throwing different kinds of liquid-filled balloons and trying to figure out which goes faster."

"Oh!" That brightened up my mood, and I bounced to his side to get a better view. "What are they trying now?"

He inched closer to the huddle the guys were having, trying to peer inside. "I think its lemonade vs. the insides of an egg."

I pushed myself to the tip of my toes to see as well, shifting my weight so I didn't fall over. "Who's winning?"

"Uh…" Just as he was about to retort, the gang of five (six if you count me) spread apart and moved to loom dangerously over the side of the building. One person held a stopwatch, one a balloon filled with one of the liquids, and another the other balloon. Andrew raised one of his arms high above his head, standing near them, kinda like the starting flag for a race, and the balloon holders stretched their arms out, holding the items in questions in tight fists.

"Jul!" One of the guys barked at him. "Come on!"

"O-okay!" He stuttered, surprised, before scuttling closer. He stood next to his relative. "T-three! Two! One!" Anticipation grew. They were watching him with beady eyes. Everyone was tense. Jul made sure to stretch out the moment. "GO!" And Andrew's arm swiped down and hit the waiting wrists at the same time and they let go or their balloons instantly (probably because it looked seriously painful, geez). Thankfully, the guy holding the stopwatch wasn't also holding his arm out, so he could avoid the attack. The dude pulled binoculars from his back pocket and stared down, focusing hard. Five faces were staring at him expectedly, unable to follow the little dots of bright red and blue rubber themselves.

Before he could open his mouth and convey the results, a loud shriek echoed from bellow.

A mix of exited hollers and disappointed sighs came from the guys around me.

"Ah yeah! It hit someone!"

"Aww, we have to start over!"

"That's the beauty of it!"

"Why does it have to hit someone?"

"For science!"

"Huzzah!"

"Again!"

I didn't want to be a party pooper or anything, but it sounded as if they planned to do this for a while. "If you keep that up, won't the authorities come up here and catch you guys?"

Three heads snapped in my direction.

"Hey look, a girl!"

"Duh genius, what did you think it was?"

"Well, I don't know, a coconut or something?"

"Doofus!"

"But it's wearing a skirt?"

"It?" I echoed, but they didn't hear me.

"If_ I_ wear a skirt, that doesn't mean I'm not a guy!"

"I don't know man, I'd think you look great in a skirt!"

"Oh my gosh guys, really?"

"Yeah dude! You'd look hot!"

"I have to try one on dude!"

They inched closer to me.

"Hey girl, let him try on your skirt!"

"Yeah girl! Do it!"

"Don't be a pussy!"

Reasoning with them didn't seem like a good idea, but it was the only thing I could do to avoid letting them have a good look at my butt. "I-I don't really think that's a good idea…"

"Come on, we won't tell!"

"Please!"

"Pretty please!"

"No one will know!"

"If it's being naked you're worried about, then we can totally lend you some pants!"

I didn't actually hate the idea of a guy wearing my clothes, I mean, a great artist needs even greater blackmail. But I wasn't so keen on having to wear their clothes. Sure, I probably look older than what I may appear, but these guys were at least six years older than me and wear two sizes longer pants. I won't be able to even move in them, if I dare put them on. "Sure, but only on one condition—" I glanced at my two friends in the group. Jul looked mortified and was sending me secret hand motions to not go along with it, and Andrew was rubbing his temples and shaking his head at us in utter disbelief.

A got some nods of agreement for having conditions from the trio.

"—we go downstairs in the department store's changing rooms to do it—"

I got some understanding nods back. These dudes were actually pretty cool with this.

"—AND—" I got an evil glint of my own. "—I get to take pictures."

"Group huddle!" The three of them turned on themselves and forcefully tugged Jul and Andrew in with them. There was a bunch of whispering, Jul refusing to go along with it, Andrew's silence, and the other three sounding like they were wondering if the value was equal to both parties. After a few minutes of waiting, they finally broke it up and turned back to face me.

"We'll agree to it _if_ we get a matching girly shirt to go with the skirt—and not that hoodie!" He dramatically pointed to my less-than-appealing (to them!) hoodie.

I resisted the urge to bite his finger off and warn him that my hoodie was awesomer than all of them combined plus one. "Fine, you got a deal!"

And we shook hands on it.

One fast sprint down the stairs, two bathroom trips, a little stop at Starbucks, and some fake-shopping later, we were huddled in front of the changing room of the wardrobe section of the huge department store. Unfortunately, Jul and Andrew refused to come with me, so I had to deal with the trio of hyper boys on my own, but it wasn't that hard, as long as I could figure out a way to manipulate them into doing what I wanted.

"Hey, stop ringing that bell so much! It's getting annoying _and_ I'm pretty sure the clerk already heard you!" I smacked the poor guy with the shorts I chose to bring with me into the changing rooms, along with two other shirts, instead of having to change into guy clothes. They had offered, again, for me to wear their clothes, but I made sure to tell them that I couldn't fit in them, and that the clerk wasn't going to let us in the rooms unless we had something to change into.

"How can I help you?" It was a female clerk, and she was having a really good time ignoring me and leering at the three boys surrounding her. They shared glances with each other and then pointed to each other as they communicated without words. After a lot of head shaking and refusal, one of them finally shrugged and then nodded. The rest were cool with it and nodded back in agreement, stepping back and backing off to let him at it.

He took control of the situation, wrapping an arm around the clerk lady and slowly inching her closer to one of the locked stalls. "Yes, we'd like to try on some clothes…"

"Okay," she breathed, looking to be in heaven, happy to be as close as she was to him. He must be really handsome to have that effect on women. Too bad their immaturity is what turned me away from falling for it, since they rudely demanded I strip for them so that they could try on my clothes. That doesn't sound too handsome to me.

While the woman fiddled with the keys at her belt to unlock the doors, I slid back to stand near the closest guy. "What was up with your finger pointing and nodding there earlier?"

"Guy code." He answered, trying to look as cool as possible. "Guys can't tell girls about the guy code."

I didn't want to argue about their logic, so I just nodded. "Sure."

One changing room open later, the female clerk was gone and I was in the changing rooms. Oh, and the guy managed to steal the clerk's keys, so they were starting to plan out their next adventure of sneaking inside the "Employees Only" door. I changed into the shorts I pulled in with me and left Ivey's skirt on the bench, getting out afterwards. As soon as one of the guys entered the room and closed the door, I slipped to the next one.

"Why did I even have to change? I mean, we could've just grabbed a skirt from the store."

He looked awe-stricken. "Dude, that's smart."

"I'm a dudette."

"Dude!" He yelled to the other guy even though he was less than five feet away. "We should've just got a skirt from the store instead of borrowing one from her! It would fit more!"

An impressed_ "Dude!"_ was the reply. They kept repeating the same thing for at least five minutes afterwards. My brain felt like it was being fried my all the dudedom it was receiving, dude. I also felt like slamming my head multiple times against a wall.

"Guys, I look hot in a skirt! But the shirts don't fit! " The guy in the changing room cut off the '_duuuuudes'_ going back and forth next to me. My brain had a hard time comprehending how the _skirt_ fit, and hot the shirts picked from the store _didn't_.

"Don't forget to get him a bra." I muttered crossly under my breath just as the guy to my left turned around to fetch another shirt.

He slapped my back. "You're a genius!" And he was off on his mission for more clothes.

The dude to my right was either texting or readying his phone to take pictures of the poor unfortunate fellow changing in the small space in front of us. I inched closer and saw he was playing Tetris. And losing. How do you even loose at Tetris?

"What are your names, anyway?" I asked after watching him failing his game in horror.

"I'm David," he had messy black hair, red eyes that had to be from contacts, and a matching red, yellow, and black outfit, "the dude in there is Zack." He pointed to the changing rooms. If I remembered correctly, that one had dark brown hair slicked back with a few longs locks still dangling in his eyes and he wore the typical plaid-shirt-over-a-t-shirt outfit.

He's not wearing that anymore though, if you know what I mean.

"And he—" The last guy showed up, jumped, and tossed a neon pink shirt into the stall as if it were a basketball. "—is called Lucy."

I blinked. "That's a girl's name."

Lucy shrugged. "My parents are crazy. I have a sister called Doug."

I snorted into my hand, but then I quickly apologized for laughing at it. He dismissed it almost immediately, being used to it. This guy had brown hair as well, but it was cut really short at the back, and a bit longer at the front, spiking upwards. His eyes were the most sparkling brown I've ever seen. He was slightly shorter than the others, but looked way cooler.

"Are you almost done in there?" David yelled to the poor unfortunate soul that had to try on women's clothing.

"Yeah!" With an unceremonious shove of the changing room door, the young man came prancing out, my jean skirt looking like it was squeezing him blue and the pink shirt working well enough to cover any shape of deformities that is body could lead to thinking was a boy. We had the frills to thank for that.

"I was right—you look hot!" Lucy responded with an appreciative whistle. I nodded in agreement and pointed to the mirror down the changing room hall. The man turned and looked at himself, did a few twirls and suggestive poses before he yelled out; "I am the hottest being to live on earth!"

And as usual, the other two guys took that as a challenge.

"No way!"

"I'm way hotter!"

"Talk to the hand!"

"Your hand isn't hot enough!"

"It's _way_ out of your league!"

"Go back in the room and let me try those clothes on!"

"Why wait?" Lucy gave an evil grin, twirling the employee keys he had snatched from the girl that came to help us earlier. A few minute later found me enjoying a male-disguised-as-female makeshift catwalk down the small hall. I took as many pictures as I could with my phone I magically found from within my backpack, and as soon as the guys each did a turn, we'd huddle around it and judge who'd make the better female. This happened a few more times with different outfits before we finally got caught. The girl employee from before was back, but only this time with her evil-looking manager standing right next to her. We gulped hard.

"We can explain—" One of the guys started, but the woman held up her hand, not wanting to hear it.

"Feel free to try on whatever you like," she started, voice oddly friendlier than I expected. "But!" She snatched the keys from Lucy's wrist. "Next time, instead of stealing our keys, simply ask us to open the changing rooms." She sent a sharp glare that had us hurrying to nod in understanding. She cracked a smile. "Good!" And she was off with a swish of her invisible cape, the girl confused but still running to catch up behind her.

"Well that was scary…" I muttered, but then I saw who was coming to us next and I backed up. "But she's even scarier!"

"Don't try to hide, Maia, I can clearly see you there." She rolled her eyes at me, before turning the pair of blues to the confused guys next to me. "Who are—" she caught herself off, eyebrows rising, before she lifted her phone and took a few pictures of her own. When the guys realized this, they started doing poses again, just for her. I snorted into my wrist.

After taking as many pictures to her heart's content, she suddenly turned to me, grabbed my arm, and pulled me aside. "What have you done? How? Why? And why's that one wearing my skirt?"

"Relax, Ivey. They wanted to try girl clothes for some reason and it turned into a women competition." I waved her off.

"It's a big deal though!" She shook me. "They might rip my skirt!"

"Fine, fine," I turned towards the guys, who still had my phone between them and were looking through the pictures. "Lucy!" The head of cool brown hair popped up in my direction. "Change your skirt!" He nodded and skipped over to the changing rooms.

Ivey raised an eyebrow. "He has a girl name?"

I nodded. "His parents are like that. His sister's name is Doug."

"Must be a hard life for them."

"Preach it sista."

"Hey Maia!" Zack cried to me, holding out my phone. "Is this a picture of you when you were a kid?"

Unfortunately, that got the attention of the other two males, since David got sparkles in his eyes and kept pestering him to see the picture, and Lucy bolted out of the changing room in his boxers and jumped for the camera.

"Guys! No! Stop that!" I was the next one going for my phone. "That's not me!"

"Sure it isn't!"

"Look at that cute face!"

"And the chubby cheeks!"

"G-guys!" I shrieked, getting red in the face. The phone was old, having been previously owned by my parents, but I didn't expect them to have kept some baby pictures on it! This was my own fault for not checking the files before lending my phone to these pesky boys. "Stop that! Give me back my phone!"

It was only edging them further though, and Zack, after making me jump like bunny for it, tossed the phone to David, who cooed. "Aww baby Maia is so cute! I could just eat you up!" As soon as I went to snatch it from him, my phone moved to Lucy.

"I could care less about baby pictures," he dropped it into my hands like a gentlemen, and the others started yelling protests. He leaned down to whisper into my ear, "I only care about the present you," and I went further red, feeling my blush on my ears. The other two started booing him when he returned to them, and he shrugged nonchalantly.

I saw Ivey's eyebrow twitch when I joined her. "Such cavemen." She shook her head at them before making her way to the changing rooms where Lucy had changed. I followed her there, and she picked up her skirt, it looking unnaturally stretched for being worn by men. She whined, measured it on me to see if it would still fit, and then dropped it in her backpack when the answer was a negative.

"Just wear out those shorts," she told me. "I'm sure the people here are used to trainers buying what they leave on."

"Yeah, okay." I was glad she wasn't harping on me that I had chosen an ugly pair. The guys had made sure I chose something appealing for their eyes. Cavemen indeed.

"Hey—where are you going?" David was the first to notice that Ivey was leading me away from them and the changing rooms.

"Sorry boys!" Ivey gave her best innocent smile over her shoulder and linked her arm in mine. "I'm kidnapping Maia for the rest of the day!"

The boys pouted but bid me farewell anyway.

"Don't be afraid to come hang with us again!"

"We're usually at the fountain!"

"Don't be a stranger!"

"Bye bye!"

"You were really cool to hang with!"

"Your friend is really cute!"

"Have fun with whatever!"

"Hey wait," Lucy suddenly appeared behind us, and I whirled around, only to find him with my phone already in his hands again. He started pressing a bunch of buttons before handing it back. "Now you got my number, so now you can't ever forget about us."

"Sure." It made me sad. While I did want to hang out with them again, there was no chance for it. I was going to leave Kanto for Hoenn, and I'm pretty sure none of us would be willing to jump to the other region. I guess we could still call each other though?

"Okay, bye!" Ivey abruptly cut the moment and yanked me further away. Once we were sure to be out of earshot, she hissed at me. "I don't trust those guys. Delete their number!"

"That's only because they stretched your skirt!"

"It was one of my favorite skirts!"

"Then you shouldn't have lent me it!"

"I didn't know you were going to give it away!"

"I didn't give it away, I lent it to them!"

"Same thing!"

"No its not!"

"Miss?" The cashier looked confused at our banter. We quickly bought my shorts, pulled off the price tag, and left running to the rooftops so that we didn't forget to bring our bags to wherever Ivey wanted to kidnap me to.

"Where are we going?" I asked once we entered the empty elevator.

"First floor." She answered.

I pressed the designated button. "Okay, done. But now seriously, where or what are we doing?"

She crossed her shopping-bag ridden arms and leaned back against one of the walls. The machine around us rumbled to life, and she waited a few seconds, thinking about her answer, before she finally spoke up. "I planned for us to go out and eat, visit Leon, and then head out for Vermillion."

I glanced down at my phone's time. It was already getting late, and who knows how long a visit would take. "By the time we're going to leave, it's going to be dark out. Traveling at night isn't always the best idea, you know."

"I know." Ivey looked dead set though. I doubt talking with her would change her mind. "But we can't afford to stop at the Pokémon Center tonight."

A smile cracked at my lips, teasingly. "Afford? It's free."

She gave me an amused look. The doors dinged open. "Yeah yeah, I know. Let's just go—" She grabbed onto my arm and tugged as hard as she could. I was in no mind to argue with her, and mindlessly went along in confusion. I was pulled out of the store and into the streets.

As soon as I realized where the road was leading to, I started resisting. "Come on, Ivey! The Pokémon Center is over there—"

"Stop that!" She swatted at my arms and dug in her heels into the ground. "I said we're not going to the Pokémon Center!"

I growled and managed to tug my arms free. I didn't really understand why I had suddenly changed my mind—I'm completely fine with skipping a night at the Pokémon Center—but at the same time, I didn't know how Spyk was, and I needed to ask the nurse about that. "Then _I_ will! You don't have to go if you're that horrified about going there! You can wait outside for all I care!" I started backing up, and her eyes went wide and she reached for me again. I managed to duck her arms and spin around to a run, going straight for the red building in the distance. I could hear her shrieking behind me, but I couldn't care less. I wasn't going to travel in the middle of the night—that's completely crazy. Plus, I had to check in with my emails and missed calls—my parents had probably called nonstop if they had heard what had happened to me—and I _did_ promise my sister to call her every night and completely forgot about that promise. I realized I was making a bunch of excuse—I didn't want to talk to my parents or check my emails—but it was suspicious why Ivey wanted me to avoid that place. I needed some sort o reason to go there, even if it was just checking in on my Pokémon or being scared to travel at night.

As soon as I was within a few meters of the center, my eyes locked in on it and what I saw made me freeze in my steps.

The Pokémon Center was completely surrounded by men and women alike, all holding microphones, cameras, phones, anything that could record. There were news crews, paparazzi, a whole crowd of strangers waiting there. Life was buzzing frantically. Questions and sentences were being yelled and slurred together at an unhealthy pace to the people inside the closed doors. I could barely make out the words. This is what Ivey wanted to avoid? It was pretty scary. I started to understand her reasoning.

"Ah shit." Ivey stopped next to me. "I didn't want you to see this."

"Didn't want me to see what?" Her fingers were around my arm and pulling me away, but she refused to answer my question. I looked at her, the rest of my body rooted to the spot, wondering why the onslaught of people affected her. Although my mind was yelling confusion at me in every way possible, the back of my mind was hissing out the possibilities behind the large crowd. I refused to believe it though. I had to hear it from Ivey. My imagination had to be playing tricks.

The crowd there couldn't be for me, could it?

"People have no lives." Ivey eventually said, shrugging nonchalantly, though I could see the nervousness under it. She kept flicking her eyes back and forth between the large group of people and I. "Let's just go and find another Pokémon Center for you to do whatever at."

"Ivey." I couldn't feel my feet under me. "Explain."

"After effects of the Diglett Cave cave-in." She spoke quick, still yanking on my arm. She caught my horrified and guilty look and tried to wave it off. "Don't worry about it. Let's go!"

A few heads from the crowd started to turn and look around, having heard us.

Ivey noticed it and started pulling faster. "Come on, Maia, move your feet or what happened to me on TV is going to happen to you too."

"What are you talking about?" The few people who turned their heads around were looking at us now. Their eyes widened. They turned back to their people and started whispering and not-so-secretly pointing at me and Ivey.

"They're going to ask you questions and twist the truth around and made you look bad. You don't want that kind of press!" She moved in front of and pushed at my chest. I wouldn't budge. A part of me wanted to run and hide, and another part of me was yelling at me to check it out, that there was nothing to fear and that they weren't here for me, that I was safe from trouble.

I lifted my foot to take a step forward.

And Ivey decided to take that to her advantage and shoved me to the ground, since my balance had shifted.

The outcome wasn't what she wanted though—my fall created a loud thudding sound, along with the collapse on my backpack on the ground, haven fallen on my back. I heard my box of granola bars splitting open. Looking down at myself, I found myself lucky to be wearing shorts. What I wasn't lucky for, however, was attracting the attention of the crowd. Many heads turned to look at the fall, gasps and more pointing ensued. I heard them instantly recognizing Ivey and making the link that I was, well, myself. They started in our direction.

Ivey grabbed a Pokéball from her belt and tossed it to the ground like a smoke ball. "Vivian, use Wrap on Maia!"

The ball exploded in bright light and temporarily halted the onslaught of people. They waited as the serpent the size of half a person came out, looking on in wonder. My eyes widened as it turned on me, paws outstretched and pointing straight at me. Not a second later, out of its golden neck band, came the long thick wines, wrapping around my waist and using the strength of a thousand men to lift me up in the air. I shrieked in horror, not trusting the creature, and it feeling terribly unsafe and unsteady. I felt the flashes of cameras go off, blinding me, and the sound of the crowd trying to understand what's going other than asking around to make sure that I'm me.

"Move it or lose it, Vivian!" Ivey started running away, and the servine dropped on all fours in order to run faster and keep up. I was dangled in mid-air, forced to go along, and I could distinctly hear the footsteps and voices fade in the background. I was forced to stare the moving greenery at my side, as if I was a kid bored out of its mind and looking out of the window of a car.

I could already imagine the deadlines of tomorrow's papers: "Girl Causes Diglett Cave-In and Goes on a Wild Ride" or "Natural Disasters: Learn How This Girl Got Crushed and Wrapped" or even "I Bet You Wish You Weren't This Girl" (newspapers oddly don't often put names in headlines, which is odd.)

"Was that necessary, Ivey?" I shrieked as soon as her Pokémon dropped me like a hot potato on the ground, my face red with humiliation. She did this when Ivey found that we were far enough and we weren't being followed anymore, outside the city walls and almost deep into yet another forest.

"Yes!" She yelled back, hands on her hips and sassiness at its maximum. "You weren't moving! I just saved your butt! You should be thankful!"

"Saved my butt from what? Being on TV? There's nothing wrong with that!" I tried back, knowing I sounded like a total newbie.

"There is! Everything is bad press!" She threw out her arms. "Think about it! There's never good news anymore! It's always one person ripping on another person!"

"The news isn't real anyway." I mumbled crossly, not really knowing what points to defend myself with anymore.

She loomed dangerously over me. "Oh, so news about you destroying Diglett Cave isn't real news?"

"Excuse me?" A small voice piped in.

Ivey mistook it for me and elaborated. "You slammed Leon against the weakly-left walls of the cave and that caused another part of it to collapse!" She pointed down at me, face contorted with fury.

I slapped her hand away and jumped to my feet in order to meet her head on. I glared right back. "If it weren't for Leon's friend or cousin or whatever, the caves wouldn't have collapsed in the first place!"

"If you hadn't spoken to them!"

"If you hadn't insisted we stop!"

"Excuse me?" There it was again.

"If you hadn't made us chase after Sam!"

"If you hadn't showed me up in the gym!"

"If you hadn't gone to the gym in the first place!"

"If you hadn't just up and ditched me in the Pokémon Center!"

Ivey went to open her mouth for another retort, but then shut it closed, instead trying to burn a hole into my forehead with her eyes. I mimicked her, standing my ground and crossing my arms. Vivian looked worriedly between us, not knowing what to do in order to help.

"Excuse me?" The little voice was still there.

We snapped our faces in its direction and yelled at the same time: "WHAT?"

The person squeaked in fright and hid behind a tree, small face inching out to look at us, though I could tell he was still scared. I instantly felt bad for being so angry and scaring the little boy.

"What is it?" Ivey put on a sweet honey voice, moving forward and bending to her knees to meet the height of the kid's. I was about to snap at Ivey for never being nice to me like that, but kept my mouth shut. It would probably scare the kid further if we bickered in front of him. Vivian followed her owner, peering closer as well, and it frightened the kid further. When Ivey realized this, she called back her Pokémon and repeated the question. The boy inched closer once more and spoke.

"I-I'm lost…" He peeped. I inched closer for a better look at him. Like Ivey, he had long blond straight hair, only his was a little mop of a thing, and blue eyes, but these were tear-stricken and hidden behind glasses. He had clothes that looked to be a size too big on him, knee-length brown khakis, a blue t-shirt and a large orange backpack.

"Where are you headed?" Ivey was good with the questions, so I let her take care of the kid. I backed away and watched from a distance, feeling like a stranger forced to watch the interaction. I wasn't good with kids—given I am a kid too—so I could only make the situation worse if I tried to help as well. I wasn't good with the whole _consoling_ and _helping others_ thing. I'm not saying that I'm selfish and could care less about someone—no, that's not it. I have no trouble giving advice or doing easy things, but if I have to go out of my way to search the whole city for a lost toy, then I would prefer to avoid that situation.

"I-I was following my brother …" he hiccupped into his sleeve and pushed back his thick glasses with the other, "…don't know…" he wiped his eyes this time, and smacked himself in the face with the glasses and then winced, "…the place…"

"Oh boy." I voiced my displeasure out loud and Ivey sent me a look to shut up and keep quiet. I held up my hands in surrender and turned away. I turned back when she turned her back to me again.

"Have you ever been there before? To the place you're going to?" Ivey coaxed gently, and the kid slowly started coming out from behind the safety of the tree. If I were him, I would've just stayed there or ran away. Ivey was scary and bossy when she wanted to be.

The kid shook his head, face still in his overly large sleeves. I felt like ditching the two and heading out on my way to Vermillion city to head to Hoenn. This was a waste of my time, I realized as soon as the kid said he didn't know where he was going. I wasn't going to waste my time traveling around the entire continent to figure out where his brother was. If the kid has never been to the city, then there was no way to recognize which is the right one as we pass through it, which is why it'd be more important to find the brother, and Arceus knows where he's at.

"Where are you from?" Ivey tried, and I bet it was because she was desperate for a straight answer from the kid.

"Pink flower city…" was the answer. Ivey looked up at me with wide eyes, asking for help since she didn't know what the kid meant. Kanto didn't have a hometown of pink flowers, unlike in Sinnoh, where Floaroma Town was the place to find any flower in the entire world.

I rolled my eyes at her. "He means Fuchsia City."

"Oh! Thanks!" She turned back to the kid. "Fuchsia City?"

He nodded, but wasn't calming down as much as we needed for him to give us a straight answer. Ivey put a hand on his small back and started rubbing circles. His hiccups instantly stopped and he curled up into her arms. She cradled him in her arms and stood to her full height, rocking him on her heels. A few seconds later, the kid was sound asleep in her arms. Ivey cooed in delight at the cuteness he was emitting.

"We're not going to Fuchsia City to deliver this kid back to the parents that thought it was okay to let him leave home prematurely." I crossed my arms in defiance, showing I mean business. "We have our own plans, and this kid isn't going to ruin them."

"I'm not going to leave him alone out here!" Ivey defensively into mama ursaring mode, protecting the child. "Look!" She nodded down at the boy in her arms. "He's really tired, and crying like he had takes a lot out of someone, and there's wild Pokémon everywhere, and I'm not saying we have to bring him back!" Her shoulders were raised to defend her point. If they weren't currently busy acting like a berceuse for the kid, they would be extended out in the why-not pose I know I use too much against my parents when I try to convince them.

"Then what do you suggest we do?" I said in exasperation, glancing up at the sky. "It's getting really late and we can't afford to dawdle. We have to keep moving."

"Tomorrow will be better." She tried to convince. "He'll feel better with rest and food and then he can give us more details and we can try to help him out then." She bounced the kid a little bit higher on her shoulder. "He's kinda heavy." She muttered to herself.

"You want to help him, you carry him." I answered her comment before finally shrugging. "Fine, he can stay with us for a few days, but we're going to have to drop him at some city, okay? Vermillion City is our last stop, and if we can't set him back on the right track before then, well too bad. We did what we could."

"Fine!" Ivey was just happy I said yes. "I never knew you could be so cold."

"I'm not cold!" I defended myself, though it just sounded like I was in denial, since I had, in fact, been frosty with helping out the poor lost kid. "His brother is going to get an earful." I added as an afterthought.

A sly smile was on Ivey's lips. "I think I understand you. You're the secret type?"

I blinked, baffled. She was throwing stereotypes at me now? What the heck? "What?"

"You know, the secret type!" She moved her head in the direction of a small trail for us to start moving along and so I followed. She explained herself: "You try to appear tough and bold, when in reality, you're soft and girly inside!" She freed up one of her arms and poked me in the side.

I squeaked, moved away, and flushed red when I realized she had just seen through me. "A-am not!" I quickly remember our old argument and tried to use it as a conversation changer. "And the subject of you what you and Vivian did is not closed!"

"Yeah, yeah," she waved me away, too amused to care. "You're too cute, Maia!"

"S-stop that!"

"Nope!"

"Ivey!"

"Don't think so!"

The little boy in Ivey's arms suddenly whined and grumbled, shifting in her arms to get into a comfier position. Ivey and I shut our lips when we realized we were being too loud and shared a mutual agreement to continue on another day.

"It's not over!" I whispered to her.

"Whatever, I was winning anyway!"

I stuck out my tongue at her, and although I knew she was right, it didn't matter. The little lost boy had managed to save us from exploding at each other, and I sure hoped we weren't going to go at it again. Arguing with Ivey was easy, but didn't feel nice afterwards. It was like me and my parents; it was like I couldn't help arguing with them all the time. I guess I couldn't help myself. I was the type to argue and annoy the people I liked to be around.


	7. 007: Learning the Basics

_Again, I'm late with updating! I don't have as many opportunities as often to write, because I have too many tasks to do for other things... and I'm watching shows that I just can't let go and they take a while to watch because it's an hour long per episode. Watching marathons of it can get tiring when you lose track of time and can't sleep properly anymore ahahah_

_Any way, enjoy this chapter! (The line system on this site is still not behaving correctly today... when is it going to get fixed? I'm so tired of dealing with it!)_

* * *

**_The Blatant Disregard of a Pokémon Trainer v2_**

* * *

_Mother a contest Champion. Father a famous photographer. What will she do to get away from all the criticizing and all the scepticism? Join the rebellion! Become a Pokémon trainer._

Everyone calls me a danger magnet—but it's not my fault. I try to stay out of trouble all the time, and yet it still manages to find and catch me. It doesn't help that my sister is somehow related to the Rocket mayhem that's been whirling around, nor does it help that my closest friend started to act suspicious. With ties made, others broken, and old scars struck, who am I anymore?

* * *

**_007. Learning the basics._**

* * *

It was around the next morning when Ivey got fed up with me. After resting and then eating a quick snack (_my_ snacks), we had managed to return to the correct trail to move along, but as soon as we had, we got faced with a few trainers. After forcing Ivey to cover for me and battle (where I really needed the training but refused to), she shoved me to a secluded area of the forest, forced me to call out Spyk, and then left with Tyson (the name of the cute lost boy we found yesterday) until I, and I quote, "learned to trust my pokémon." I had no idea from where she got that, since I did trust Spyk! I was simply just too scared to face him.

But now I had to.

And he was watching me.

"Hi Spyk..." I laughed awkwardly, trying to release the tension. He just watched me, little beady black eyes expectant. "I didn't mean to only let you out of your pokéball just now... no, I mean—yes! I did! I mean, I called you out here, right? But I-I actually just mean that I'm sorry for not letting you out earlier. It must be stuffy in your pokéball, right?" It was surprising how such a little Pokémon was having me talk crazy like this. The only problem was that he still wasn't reacting, just watching. It was really unnerving. Was this some sort of interview? "Hahaha..." I looked over my shoulder to Ivey, who was hiding in the bushes like I knew she would be, and mouthed for help, but she shook her head and absolutely refused. I mentally screamed at her, and I swear she mentally stuck out her tongue at me in return.

"Pi." The little pichu called my attention, and I whirled to watch him attentively.

"Yes?" I tried hesitantly.

He crossed his little paws. "Pi pi pipipi pi pipi pichu!" He started, and I nodded in understanding. I truly did a little, it was crazy how Pokémon and trainers could understand each other so well when they interacted so little, but I could tell he was posed to scold me on how irresponsible I've been lately, and that I Pokémon should be treated just like humans and the whole package my mom used to tell me when I was young. "Pichu pi pipipipi pi pipi pi pichu pi!"

"Yes, I know, I'm sorry!" I cut in, resisting the urge to burry my head into the ground like a doduo. "I was just ashamed that I was such a bad trainer!" ("And a bad friend!" Ivey chirped in the background and I quickly sent her a look to shuttheFup.)

The pichu's look softened. "Pichu... pi pipi pipi! Chu..."

"Really?" I swear I must've looked like a kid that just got an unexpected (but totally awesome) gift at Christmas, eyes bright and fully of joy. "You forgive me?" Spyk nodded and I leapt at him, arms extended and ready to hold and snuggle him.

He stopped me with a stern "Pi!" and I paused. "Piiii pi pi." He continued with his condition, a frown on his features, but looking secretly happy that he was getting what he wanted, and I grinned, nodding and swooping him in my arms. He screeched and discharged in shock, jolting me to bits. But I didn't care—Spyk was a little angel having to deal with me and my odd moods.

"See!" Ivey jumped out of the bushes and laughed at me, a hand at her mouth as if she was a villain, looking haughty. "I told you Spyk doesn't hate you! Now, remind me again, who was right?" Her hand moved to cup her ear, an exaggerated action of wanting to hear me better.

"You." I grumbled unhappily, my pride slapping me since it wasn't happy that I was bending over to Ivey of all people. She deserved it, I guess. Now Spyk and I could get better and bond and train and be cool ninjas together, all because she refused me from moving further in this forest we were lost in. I don't know if I should be thankful or worried about what she would've done in the future.

"I didn't hear you!" She kept taunting.

"You are!" I growled back, face red with humiliation even though there was no one around to watch me get humiliated.

"Pichu!" Spyk jumped in, jumping on my shoulder and holding my face protectively.

I petted him with a smile, almost pushing him off since he was that small, and then jumped to my feet, matching Ivey's height even though she was clearly taller than me. "I'm only going to say this once, Ivey. Thank you."

She still had her hand to her ear, smile wide and teasing. "What was that? I can't hear you!"

"How mean!" I teased, moving over to her and pulling her down so that I could drop my hand in her hair in a noogie. She shrieked, whining about her precious hair, but she didn't really complain. We burst into giggles and she let me do it for a bit before she latched onto my hands and flipped me over her shoulder. I landed with a rough smack on my back, Spyk landing on my face afterwards and then rolling on my chest, since he had only been holding on by a hair (my precious hair that Ivey had bothered to touch up for me). I watched her in surprise, the wind knocked out of me.

"I always win." She explained with a snicker and I just stared at her like she'd gone insane, because, in her case, she already had. I just kept staring at her backwards and she grew uneasy. "W-what is it?"

"Are you a ninja?" I narrowed my eyes suspiciously, and even Spyk agreed with me: "Pi pi!"

The grin stretched on her lips. "Maybe!"

"Big sis—" Tyson came sprinting through the bushes as hard as his little feet could carry him. He went straight for Ivey as I pushed myself up, Spyk dropping into my lap with a flop. The boy looked scared out of his wits, tears leaving his eyes as he clung onto Ivey's leg, shaking hard.

"What's wrong?" She asked in surprise, automatically bending down and rubbing soothing circles on his back. He clung onto her and pointed wildly behind him. It was something we didn't understand though, because there was nothing coming for us, nothing that was supposedly chasing or scaring him.

"I don't see anything." I spoke, not bothering to stand up, since it was pretty relaxing to be sitting down on the ground for once. I had to do it more often. Spyk's ears perked up suddenly, and he turned in the direction that the kid was pointing at, on high alert, little body tense. I furrowed my eyebrows curiously at him, "What is it, Spyk?"

"Pi..." he grumbled, and I realized how stupid my question was, since I probably couldn't understand him as well as I thought I could. Okay, I lied, I can understand him pretty well for being my Pokémon, but still. I could be misinterpreting everything.

"Maia, what's that noise?" Ivey asked, slowly returning to her full height and watching me, dead serious, eyes wide. She grabbed onto Tyson and pulled him up so that he was on her hip, and she instantly ready to go.

"What noise?" I asked, dread dropping into my gut. I closed my eyes and focuses on my ears,, trying to pull out a sound that didn't belong but that both Ivey and Spyk were somehow able to hear. I started to hear it too, and it was progressively getting louder too, as if it was approaching.

"We should move!" She yelled, spinning on her heel and running in the opposite direction of the eerie noise. I grabbed Spyk with a hand so he wouldn't fall off and turned my body so that I jumped to my feet, trying to follow the sprinting Ivey.

"Why are we running?" I yelled at her, glad I had a changed into a backpack early in our journey, since my shoulder had started to hurt, so it no longer thumped awkwardly into my hipbone as I ran. Messenger bags were surprisingly painful to carry around, making it harder to run or even walk to a destination. Backpacks, though, didn't dig into one shoulder and was instead well balanced on both. It lessened the pain of carrying piles of clothes and items by so much that I no longer wanted to go anywhere without one.

Ivey looked over her shoulder at me, mouth open to answer, but she glanced up at something behind my head and paled, picking up the pace. "Look for yourself!"

So I looked.

And regretted it.

We were being chased by a herd of angry beedrills. Being chased by a bunch of angry Pokémon, let alone poison types that could surely kill us with one shot, wasn't really something I wanted to happen so soon in our journey, but I guess Tyson had done something to piss them off. I picked up the pace, trying to match Ivey's, who was running pretty fast for someone wearing heels and carrying a kid.

"Maia, you have an electric Pokémon—zap them!" She hissed at me when she realized I was next to her.

I glanced down at Spyk, whom I was holding protectively against me, and he was shaken up and confused. He looked up at me, tiny hands clinging onto my sleeves, and tilted his head with wide eyes. I didn't want him to go against such a large group of scary Pokémon. There were too many and Spyk and I hadn't even battled correctly together. Spyk had to be so much weaker, even with type advantage. "I can't—"

"Don't be an idiot! We're so far from civilization that there's no way that we'll escape them safely! You're our only choice!"

"Not if Spyk can't do it!"

"He can pull through!"

"Think of the Pokémon!"

"Think of _our_ safety!"

"Our safest bet is to jump in water!" I changed the argument, turning to the survival skills I remembered from my childhood years. "A lake or a pond or something!"

"Are you insane? I'm not going into mucky water! Think again!" She screamed at me, since our voices had been steadily rising since we had started running. She stole a glance behind us and her eyes widened again. She quickly let go of Tyson with one hand to grab my shoulder and pull me in front of her. I stumbled in confusion, but shrieked when of a beedrill whizzed past at an incredible speed, and it would've definitely hurt me if I had stayed at that place.

"This way!" Ivey continued, pointing at the thick brush to her left before going back to holding onto Tyson. "We'll have to lose them!" She hinted malice that we had no choice, since I still refused to fight.

I quickly followed along, too scared of staying behind and getting eaten by the team of bug pokémon. She zigzagged left and right through trees, and I mimicked as closely as I possibly could. I could hear the buzzing thinning out and a few thumps as the beedrills smacked into trees by accident. I laughed a few times and found it great that our small plan was working, getting confident, but before we knew it, we ended up in a clearing.

"Shit!" We paused in the center of it, and I heard the beedrills before they showed up. Ivey made to keep going through, but the spikes on their hands shot out and landed in front of her and she jolted in surprise. She dropped Tyson behind her, and I purposely turned around and backed up so that he was safely wedged between the two of us. Taking a quick look around the whole clearing, it was obvious that we were surrounded.

"Maia!" Ivey snapped at me, not wasting time since they could attack at any moment. She pulled a pokéball from her pocket and enlarged it with a click of a button. "Fight!" She tossed it in the air. With a bright flash of light, Vivian came out, her strongest Pokémon. It hissed threateningly at all the Pokémon in its sight and quickly slithered in a circle to assess its surroundings before standing strong in front of its trainer.

I clenched my fists, uneasy with fighting so many Pokémon and unwilling to let go of Spyk, to have him fight. I wasn't ready for this. I know I said I would start battling with him seriously and train and not back down, but I was a hypocrite. I didn't mean to have him train with Pokémon that were way out of his league!

"Maia, he won't die." Ivey growled at me, before turning around to jab my side. I shrieked in surprise, extremely ticklish, arms shooting to the side to block the sudden attack, and I let go of Spyk without thinking. He landed on the ground safely, running forward to stand protectively in front of me like Vivian had, and I couldn't help the scowl that stretched on my face.

"What d'you do that for?" I whipped my hand back and hit her over the head.

"You wouldn't let go of Spyk!" She returned the gesture, a hit to my head.

"I would've!" I hesitated, unsure if I was lying or not. "...Eventually!"

"Are you kidding me?" She hissed, throwing up her arms in exasperation. "Why do I even bother with you? You still don't trust your Pokémon!"

"I do so!"

"If you do—" She glanced back in time to notice one of the beedrills launch another array of their spikes at Vivian. "—Vivian, use Vine Whip on that bedrilll!—" She pointed at another one to the side. I watched on in confusion, wondering why she wouldn't call the attack against the one that was attacking her. Vivian unleashed her vines on the unsuspecting bug type on the side, wrapping them around it and pulling it in front of her, only to have it protect the servine as it took the blow of spikes instead. I gaped openly—that was totally underhanded! "—then you would let him battle! A pokémon's duty is to battle and protect their trainer, not the other way around." She looked back at me, eyes blazing. "Because there's no way in hell that you're strong enough to fight all of these pokémon yourself."

"But I—"

"Spyk, zap her!"

A bolt of electricity suddenly sizzled through my body, and I yelped in surprise. I had gotten used to getting shocked from Spyk, but when I wasn't expecting it, it hurt more than I thought it would. I shook off the electricity, though it felt like I was covered with enough static that I could easily shock someone myself with just a small graze, and glared back at Ivey, since she was the one who started the fight. "Don't conspire against me!"

"Just battle this one time and I'll stop being on your case!" Her eyes glanced to something at my side, probably Spyk, but they held onto him as she followed it upwards. "Maia! Pay attention to your pokémon!"

I whipped around in surprise and realized Spyk was nowhere to be seen. I looked up, following Ivey's previous motions, and finally found him. He was held in a vice-grip between the spike-hands of a few beedrills, pressing it dangerously in its fur, trying to cut him.

Shit! No no no no no, what do I do?!

Ivey yelled at me as she battled, frustrated that I was being an idiot. "Attack!"

"Spyk, thundershock!" I responded without thinking, as it was the only electric attack I could think of that I was sure that Spyk knew. It was the most basic one, other than thunder wave, that all electric pokémon knew, so he had to as well. I was right; a bright flash of light exploded from the ball that was the pichu's little body and sounds of screeching bug types echoed along with it. I had no time to react as if I hadn't meant to demand that. It was too late—my wish to lead a peaceful life (and yet somehow manage to collect the gym badges) was thrown out the window. Violent was the way to go.

"That's the way to do it!" Ivey cheered me on as if there wasn't a problem and my mental contemplation was nothing to worry about. So I followed her lead, trying not to think about it, throwing commands of Thunder Waves, Thunder Shocks, and Tackles left and right. Ivey and I worked back to back, and for a grass trainer that was supposedly weak to bug types, she handled herself and her pokémon pretty well. She was better than me, I had to admit. That couldn't be helped though, as I was still a greenhorn with a big ego.

When the last beedrill finally collapsed, Spyk climbed into my arms for a well deserved nap. I petted him gratefully and gave him soothing, encouraging words, since I'm sure I had worked him to the bone, and that he had saved us all. I planned to buy him a treat later.

"You should return him to his pokéball," Ivey told me as she did just that with Vivian, "it's safer that way."

"Can't," I instantly replied, as if I had predicted she would say that. "I promised him I would only put him in his pokéball at night."

"You're an idiot."

"So are you!"

"Say that to my badge!"

"Say that to my face!"

"Say that to my butt!"

"Say that to my—" It was at this point that Tyson had had enough of our pointless bickering and started crying again. I had nearly forgotten about him too. He clung onto the end of Ivey's skirt until she picked him up and bounced him around as if she needed to use the toilet. I found myself having that need as I watched her trying to soothe him in her weird way. I wasn't going to pee in the woods though. I was a lady, after all. A dirty lady who nearly died due to giant hornets, but still a lady no less.

Unfortunately, due to the sudden beedrill chase, we found ourselves lost further into the forest and in dire need of rescuing. It was frustrating, since we had just found ourselves a safe trail to lead us out before Tyson came running with all the bugs. I'm assuming he's probably a danger magnet, after what had just happened. What's worse is that he doesn't even have a pokémon on him to defend himself with. He was lucky to have us with him at this time.

Another thing I found myself learning about him, though, was that he was a spoilt brat. As soon as Ivey shushed him and everything was calm again, he cooed happily into her arm and fell asleep, just like a baby. For a kid that looked to be five or six, he sure acted as if his age was less than that.

"You're spoiling him." I commented offhandedly.

She replied with a "I can't help myself!" and a "Have you seen this cute face?" and then pinching his cheeks. He grumbled at her and tried swatting her hands away, but his arms just flopped over hers and stayed there, as if there wasn't any force left in them. It was pathetic, but apparently Ivey thought it was cute.

"Where do you think his big brother is?" I asked as we stepped stealthily around the fainted bodies of the vicious pokémon with which we had just battled. "He had better find us fast."

"What's with the hate?" Ivey hissed at me, turning her head sharply in my direction.

I shrugged my shoulders. "He started this mess."

"And I'm ending it." She sent me an even glare that clearly meant business and that if I dared pursue it, she was going to fight me (that's a scary thought). She added: "Besides, he doesn't know what he's doing. He's just a kid."

"So am I!" I hissed in return. "I'm what, 10? 10 and a quarter? And I'm acting more mature than he is!"

"Oh, shut it Maia," Ivey had the audacity to roll her eyes at me. "We can't all be special snowflakes like you."

I was taken aback by her sudden bitchiness. "What's up with you?"

"Lately you're always complaining about everything when you're not even taking risks or trying to change anything!" She cried, whipping a hand in my direction so that she could point her finger in my face. "You need to learn to do more and speak less! It's a waste of time and energy!"

I was lying if I said that what she had said didn't hurt me, but I didn't want her to know that she was right. And I wasn't even going to mention the fact that when I do _do_ something, horrible chaos ensues. Instead I huffed and tried to think of a way to _silently_ change the situation. Tyson got chased by beedrills but he couldn't fight them because he had no Pokémon, so he had to run to us for help. In order to change that situation, so that it doesn't happen again... I got it! He just needs to find a pokémon of his own!

I slipped my backpack off my shoulders, digging in my side pockets. When I found a blank and empty pokéball, I whirled on my feet and returned to the clearing we had just left. I looked at the fallen beedrills, looking for the worthiest, before I activated then tossed the ball at the biggest I could find. The ball sucked it in and shook, and I beamed when it dinged, stating a successful capture.

I ran back to an impatiently waiting Ivey. "Where did you go?"

"You told me to do something, so I did." I held out the pokéball to her. "I caught Tyson a beedrill. Now he can fight and battle for himself and learn responsibility."

Ivey's face read impressed as she took the ball, but she couldn't help but let out a low snicker and an "unlike you" to my words.

I rolled my eyes and bumped into her with a smile, and she laughed and bumped into me back and our friendship was good again. She dropped the ball into Tyson's hands, with which he cuddled into as soon as he felt it, and we were on the road again.

Unfortunately though, the whole chase and swarm battle with the beedrills had lasted a long while and the sun was lowering in its cycle, so that meant it had to be at least 2 in the evening. We hadn't eaten all day yet, and I knew that if we didn't stop somewhere to eat, Ivey would jump into my precious granola bars again.

I glanced around as we trekked through the forest, for a place to rest. Spyk woke up along the way and bounced to the top of my head, using it as leverage so that he could see further to help me look. As we pushed through a pile of sudden thick foliage, we reached another clearing, and fortunately found a group of four trainers having a picnic.

Ivey's eyes grew hungry as she locked onto their food. "Oh Arceus, that looks good."

"You guys look terrible." One of the girls in the party, the one eating what looked like a ham and cheese sandwich—it was at this time that I realized that the group were probably having a double date—threw at us nonchalantly.

I glanced at Ivey and Tyson before looking down at myself. We were covered in branches and there was mud and some sort of syrupy—tree sap?—on certain parts of my pants and arms, but that was only because I was careless and walked into trees when I wasn't paying attention to where Ivey was headed. Ivey and Tyson were much neater than I was, even though Ivey's hair was still a mess because of the noogie I gave her. I bet mines had branches in it though.

"I know!" The guy across from the chatty girl spoke up, suddenly tossing a pokéball in the air and catching it again, as if it was there the entire time. "Let's have a pokémon battle!"

"If you guys win, then you can join us and have some food!" Girl chimed, grinning evilly.

"If you lose, then you must leave right after giving us all the food you have on you. Capiche?" Guy added with a cackle.

I glanced at Ivey, whose eyes were still locked on to the food (probably the salad on the side), and I knew that without even having to say a word, she was going to wail at me to agree and battle. Besides, at the sound of battle, Spyk started jumping on my head and I'm sure he wouldn't take no for an answer.

"We accept your challenge!" I hollered, getting pumped myself.

Tyson whined at my loud voice though, and then whined even more when Ivey laid him down next to a tree where we placed our stuff so that it wouldn't be in the way. The two that had challenged us got up and joined us some distance away, to make a makeshift battle field, and the other male got up to act as a referee for the battle. The other girl wasn't even paying attention though, and kept on eating and distractedly petting her farfetch'd.

"This is a two-on-two pokémon battle between Melanie and Vance and—" the ref glanced at us for help. We yelled our names at him and he repeated them, "—Maia and Ivey. No substitutions or items allowed!" We all nodded in agreement. "Begin!"

"You're up, Spyk!" I called as I pointed to the battle field. My pichu chirped in agreement and jumped off my head, running down my extended arm and leaping onto the field.

"Well, since this my first double battle, I might as well practice with my new baby." She plucked the third ball from her belt and expanded it. She tossed it in her hand, mimicking the guy—Vance?—when he had challenged us, before tossing it out. The tiny scaredy cat bulbasaur appeared out of the bright red light, and our opponents followed suit and called their own pokémon out as well, a phanpy and koffing. As soon as they appeared though, Momo shrieked and ran to hide behind Ivey. Ivey denied her though, so instead, Momo wailed and hid behind Spyk, who looked really conflicted about having her there.

After a wait of three seconds, things got real.

"Rio, use smokescreen!" The koffing expelled a strong breath of gas and, before we knew it, their half the field was hidden with dark smoke.

"I got an idea," Ivey told me before she called to her pokémon. "Momo, ready a strong poison powder for that smoke!"

"Bulba!" The little plant tucked itself in and started to suck in air, to create the powder.

The girl, Melanie, must've understood what was going on, that Ivey wanted to poison their hiding spot, so she tried to protect it. "Don't let them, Anna! Rollout!"

Momo was almost ready to unleash its powder, but the phanpy was heading straight for it. With Spyk standing in front of the bulbasaur, I couldn't think of much else than to have him stay there and take on the attack so that Momo would stay unharmed.

"Spyk, thundershock it as hard as you can!" Without a moment's delay, electricity ran up Spyk's little body and he waited less than a second to charge it up. He released it in a flash of light and it flew straight to the rolling ball of blue, striking it in the face.

"Maia, phanpy is a ground type!" Ivey hissed to me, low enough so that the other two didn't hear me.

"Sorry, but Anna is a ground type!" Melanie laughed.

It was funny how people were immediately on you when they think you've made a mistake.

"That's not it though!" I replied to both at the same time, and they turned to look at the phanpy with narrowed eyes. It spun closer and closer, and instead of hitting Ivey and I's pokémon like we all thought it would, it touched the ground sooner than expected and bounced in the air, out of control.

"What?" Melanie gasped.

"Now, Momo!" Ivey didn't try to understand and instead rolled with it. The little bulbasaur cried in answer and released a purple mist from the bulb plant on its back. It shot straight up, do to the pressure built up, and hit Anna in the gut.

As soon as the little elephant creature landed again, it stopped rolling and tried to shake off the powder, but instead ended up breathing it in and sneezing, which ultimately poisoned it. It wailed pathetically and flopped on the ground in pain. It wasn't out just yet though.

"Rio, use sludge!" Vance, who'd been quiet until now, suddenly piped up. Out of the thick fog suddenly came a stream of black, mucky water. It was too sudden to avoid though, and it struck both Spyk and Momo in the face, staining them.

Spyk clawed at his face and ended up releasing a sudden shock of electrify due to his surprise, which hurt Momo, who was next to him. The little pokémon shrieked but couldn't do anything else to defend herself from the sudden act of betrayal. I gave a sheepish grin to Ivey, who shot me an evil look.

"Momo, use vine whip to destroy the smokescreen!"

"Spyk, tackle phanpy!" The little Pichu ran like no other pokémon ever ran before, towards the weak little phanpy.

Momo expanded its vines and started spanking the smoke. I let out a snort at my own thoughts. Ivey rolled her eyes at me and whispered a "you're so immature."

"Shut up," I wheezed between giggles. It was also at that time that Spyk successfully tackled Anna, who squealed like a swinub before tumbling away with swirling eyes. I let out a victory cheer at the sight and Ivey smacked me for doing it right in her ear.

"Rio, don't let it find you!" Vance was getting anxious, but apparently refusing to give up. "Tackle it as well!"

Ivey got serious too though. "Stay on your toes, Momo!"

"That would be hard, considering she doesn't have toes," I snickered.

"Stop getting cocky, Maia!" She shoved me good-naturedly. She quickly got serious though, searching the fog for hints.

I realized I should help her too, as the fight wasn't over. If Momo's out, then Spyk and I'd have to face the koffing! "Get ready Spyk!"

We watched, eyes squinting, before a rolling ball of purple came rushing out at an impossible angle. Ivey realized it a second too late though, and before she could call out to dodge, the pokémon slammed its poison body right into her, also successfully knocking it out.

Now there was only two left.

I wasn't going to let him take a break though, and before Ivey could even think about returning her pokémon, I called out a sharp; "Spyk, thundershock!"

Spyk, who was waiting for my command, erupted in bright light, a flying bolt of electricity flying to the floating koffing. Rio refused to take it sitting down—or uh floating up?—and wiggled to the side, and the attack barely grazed past.

"How in the world?" I exclaimed, face contorting with shock.

A smile crept on Vance's face. "Sludge Rio!"

"Dodge it!" And Spyk did do try indeed, but somehow the koffing's speed was still better than Spyk, and he still got another hit of horrid black sludge in his poor face. Like last time, Spyk released a jolt of electricity due to his surprise (or maybe he just doesn't like sudden impacts), but even that missed the koffing, as the mucky attack was done from a distance.

"Tackle!" Vance wasn't letting up and I swear the koffing was laughing manically to its inflated ego. Either way, it was shortening the distance and fast. I had to do something before it hit.

"Thundersh—" I tried the final attack, but yet again the speed wasn't what I had expected and Rio hit Spyk before I could even finish my words. The two rolled together in a ball of flying dust and it was hard to see for a few seconds. I could hear Ivey praying for victory next to us, but you could tell by the two opponent's faces that it was going to be their victory, no trace of doubt on their faces.

The dust cleared and we could all clearly see Spyk fainted under a floating, still laughing, koffing.

"Anna, Momo, and Spyk are unable to battle, Rio and Vance are the winners!" The second picnic male confirmed the end of the battle. Melanie leapt in the air with a cheer and joined her hands with Vance's for high fives. Not wanting to see their celebrating, I took out my pokéball and recalled my pokémon.

"Sorry Spyk. We'll do better next time." I spoke to my ball, as if he could miraculously hear me although he was unconscious.

"I thought you said you would only put him in his ball at night?" Ivey instantly noticed my mistake.

"Yeah, but now that he's fainted, he can tell nor complain." I easily made up on the spot, and Ivey burst into a giggle at my answer.

"Make him faint more often then." She nudged me, and it was my turn to laugh.

"Hey now!" Vance turned to us, hissing like a snake, eyes narrowed. "Why are you two so happy? You lost!"

"We're not allowed to be happy?" I immediately responded without thinking.

He didn't like that though, because as soon as it registered in his mind, he started threateningly at us. Melanie saved us though, quickly clinging onto his arm. Her face held no victory joy though, completely seriousness.

"Just give us your food and go," said she sharply, eyes colder than ice.

I couldn't refuse her though, as we had lost and I had to abide by the food rules, so I pulled off my bag and started digging through it. I eventually found my last box of granola, as Ivey still didn't buy me new ones, and after arguing and letting them search through my bag because they didn't believe that was all we had, we left the safe (but not really safe) little clearing.

"You better control your boyfriend!" Ivey threw at them when we were almost out of sight, still-sleeping Tyson surprisingly still out like a light and on her hip again, even through the battle and our bickering and moving him around.

As soon as we heard a yell of frustration from Vance in the party, we burst into a run as fast as we could, snorts escaping us. We made it past a few more empty clearings before we deemed it was fine to stop running.

"What a sore winner!" Ivey immediately snickered behind a hand.

"I know, right?" I answered with a full blown laugh. "He was so upset that we didn't get our egos bruised!"

"Who would? We're still newbie trainers!"

"What are you talking about—you have a badge! That's not newbie!"

"Yeah, but that was only pure luck! Besides, the gym was rock type! Too easy!"

I let out a low grumble. "Rub it in, why don't you!"

"Sorry, forgot you were bad at battling," she petted my head like I was a kid.

"Hey! I lasted longer than you this time!"

"Momo is way weaker though!"

I couldn't continue the argument though, because there was only one thing on my mind. "Did you see his face?" I asked through repressed giggles.

"You mean this?" And she tried to repeat it, completely exaggerated, and it was so good that I had curled over due to my stomach hurting. After a few more sessions of mocking and laughing and being totally mean, Tyson got fed up with us and started crying.

"Maybe we should stay here the night?" Ivey asked between bouncing Tyson and shushing him. "It's already getting late."

"Yeah but during the night," a laugh escaped my lips, "they might come find us!"

Ivey, though laughing along, nodded that we should probably go.

So until we found a better place to hide from the scary picnickers, we kept adventuring.


End file.
